(sometimes singular) the ability to reason and act, esp quickly (esp in the phrase have one's wits about one )
(sometimes singular) right mind, sanity (esp in the phrase out of one's wits )
at a loss to know how to proceed
obsolete the five senses or mental faculties
to gain a livelihood by craftiness and cunning rather than by hard work
Your wits are your ability to think clearly and quickly. If the class lizard escapes, you can panic — or you can keep your wits, calmly catch him in a box, and return him to his terrarium. The word wits is used to describe a person's collective mental faculties. If you hang onto your wits in an emergency, that means you remain resourceful and capable. On the other hand, if haunted houses scare you out of your wits, you will probably lose your ability to keep calm and collected at the first sight of a vampire. Wits, like wit, derives from the Old English gewit, "understanding or sense."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But when her real wits and intelligence come into place, it’s unbeatable.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
They've broken new ground and set new records, they've challenged the way of things in Scotland and have scared the wits out of the biggest guns.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
I am reasonably educated, and at 64, I still have most of my wits.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 12, 2026
They talk about all of the things that have been left unsaid, buried by their never-ending battle of wits.
From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2026
Trying to collect his wits and courage, Vetch spoke the Revelation-spell, watching between each slow-syllabled word for change or tremor of illusion in this strange drying and shallowing of the abyss of ocean.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
West Wits, which also has a gold and copper project in its home market of Australia, hurried Qala Shallows into production a year ahead of schedule to capitalize on skyrocketing prices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
In South Africa, where one in five adults lives with HIV, a Wits University research unit oversaw the rollout as part of an initiative funded by Unitaid, the United Nations health agency.
From Barron's ● Dec. 1, 2025
This is an initiative that the DA had been lobbying for in an effort to eliminate poverty, TK Pooe, a senior researcher at the Wits School of Governance, told the BBC.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2024
Smit is now based at the University of the Witwatersrand where she is part of a team developing a new isotope lab and methodologies so that diamond inclusion analyses can ultimately be conducted at Wits.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2023
Wits opened a new world to me, a world of ideas and political beliefs and debates, a world where people were passionate about politics.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
