bit vs hint

bit

noun
  • A small amount of something. 

  • A gag of a style similar to a bridle. 

  • An excerpt of material making up part of a show, comedy routine, etc. 

  • The bevelled front edge of an axehead along which the cutting edge runs. 

  • A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to the reins to direct the animal. 

  • A gun. 

  • The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit. 

  • A portion of something. 

  • A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0. 

  • In the southern and southwestern states, a small silver coin (such as the real) formerly current; commonly, one worth about 12½ cents; also, the sum of 12½ cents. 

  • The cutting iron of a plane. 

  • Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values. 

  • A unit of measure for information entropy. 

  • A prison sentence, especially a short one. 

  • A microbitcoin, or a millionth of a bitcoin (0.000001 BTC). 

  • A unit of currency or coin in the Americas worth a fraction of a Spanish dollar; now specifically, an eighth of a US dollar. 

  • A rotary cutting tool fitted to a drill, used to bore holes. 

  • Fractions of a second. 

  • Somewhat; something, but not very great; also used like jot and whit to express the smallest degree. See also a bit. 

  • The part of a key which enters the lock and acts upon the bolt and tumblers. 

  • Specifically, a small amount of time. 

verb
  • To put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of (a horse). 

  • simple past tense of bite 

adj
  • Having been bitten. 

hint

noun
  • A small, barely detectable amount. 

  • An instruction to the database engine as to how a query should be executed, for example whether to use an index or not. 

  • An implicit suggestion that avoids a direct statement. 

  • A clue. 

  • Information in a computer-based font that suggests how the outlines of the font's glyphs should be distorted in order to produce, at specific sizes, a visually appealing pixel-based rendering; an instance of hinting. 

verb
  • To develop and add hints to a font. 

  • To imply without a direct statement; to provide a clue. 

  • To bring to mind by a slight mention or remote allusion; to suggest in an indirect manner. 

How often have the words bit and hint occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )