Refine this word faster

Stronger alternatives Opposite tone Use in context Cross-language nuance

Wit

//wɪt// noun, prep, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Sanity. countable, plural-normally, uncountable

    "He's gone completely out of his wits."

  2. 2
    Initialism of waterfowl identification test. Australia, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
  3. 3
    mental ability wordnet
  4. 4
    The senses. countable, obsolete, plural-normally, uncountable
  5. 5
    a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter wordnet
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning. countable, uncountable

    "Where she has gone to is beyond the wit of man to say."

  2. 7
    a witty amusing person who makes jokes wordnet
  3. 8
    The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints. countable, uncountable

    "My father had a quick wit and a steady hand."

  4. 9
    Intelligence; common sense. countable, uncountable

    "The opportunity was right in front of you, and you didn't even have the wit to take it!"

  5. 10
    Humour, especially when clever or quick. countable, uncountable

    "The best man's speech was hilarious, full of wit and charm."

  6. 11
    A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty. countable, uncountable

    "Your friend is quite a wit, isn't he?"

Preposition
  1. 1
    Pronunciation spelling of with. Southern-US, alt-of, pronunciation-spelling
Verb
  1. 1
    To know, be aware of (constructed with of when used intransitively). ambitransitive

    "You committed terrible actions — to wit, murder and theft — and should be punished accordingly."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English wit, from Old English witt (“understanding, intellect, sense, knowledge, consciousness, conscience”), from Proto-West Germanic *witi, from Proto-Germanic *witją (“knowledge, reason”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”). Cognate with Dutch wit (“knowledge”), German Witz (“joke; wit, humour”), Danish vid (“wit”), Norwegian Bokmål, Swedish vett (“wit”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌹 (unwiti, “ignorance”), Latin vīdī (“see (pf.)”), Bulgarian вям (vjam, “to know”), Russian ве́дать (védatʹ, “to know”), Sanskrit विद्या (vidyā, “knowledge, wisdom”). Compare wise.

Etymology 2

From Middle English witen, from Old English witan, from Proto-West Germanic *witan, from Proto-Germanic *witaną, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”). Cognate with North Frisian waase, wed, weet (“to know”), Saterland Frisian wíete (“to know”), West Frisian wite, witte (“to know”), Alemannic German wüsse (“to know”), Cimbrian bizzan (“to know”), Dutch, Low German weten (“to know”), German wissen (“to know”), Luxembourgish wëssen (“to know”), Yiddish וויסן (visn, “to know”), Danish vide (“to know”), Elfdalian witå (“to know”), Faroese, Icelandic vita (“to know”), Jutish veer (“to know”), Norwegian Bokmål vide, vite (“to know”), Norwegian Nynorsk veta, vita, våtå (“to know”), Scanian veda (“to know”), Swedish veta (“to know”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (witan, “to know”), Italian guidare (“to guide”), Spanish, Portuguese guiar (“to guide”), French guider (“to guide”), and Latin videō (“I see”). Compare guide.

Etymology 3

From with.

See also for "wit"

Synonyms Antonyms Rhymes Sentences Translate Word Type Pronunciation Word Forms

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciation

Mini challenge

Want a quick game? Try Word Finder.