nitwit

American  

[nit-wit] / ˈnɪtˌwɪt /

noun

1. a slow-witted, stupid, or foolish person.

   Synonyms:

   booby, dunce, dolt, blockhead, fool

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nitwit British  

/ ˈnɪtˌwɪt /

noun

1. informal a foolish person

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Etymology

Origin of nitwit

First recorded in 1920–25; nit (from German; dialectal variant of nicht “not”) + wit ¹ (in the sense of “intelligence”)

Example Sentences

And I became a gunslinging nitwit in what was the last really crazy, silly stock market before the internet era.

From Barron's • Dec. 31, 2025

“Some nitwit wants to know what I think of Cameroon going into the Southeastern Conference.”

From Golf Digest • Apr. 28, 2020

If KD wants to get into a back-and-forth with each nitwit, he’s free to do so.

From Washington Times • Sep. 20, 2017

He does this because he’s a cutting-edge multimedia artist and not, as you think, a self-indulgent nitwit vastly overcompensating for those three Transformers films he made.

From The Guardian • Apr. 13, 2017

They apologized when stepping on someone's foot and never thought to complain when some nitwit with a video camera stupidly blocked their path.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris