wit
1 Americannoun
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wits
plural
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the keen perception and cleverly apt expression of those connections between ideas that awaken amusement and pleasure.
- Synonyms:
- drollery
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speech or writing showing such perception and expression.
-
a person having or noted for such perception and expression.
-
understanding, intelligence, or sagacity.
-
Usually wits
-
powers of intelligent observation, keen perception, ingenious contrivance, or the like; mental acuity, composure, and resourcefulness.
using one's wits to get ahead.
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mental faculties; senses.
to lose one's wits;
frightened out of one's wits.
-
idioms
-
at one's wit's end. at the end of one's ideas or mental resources; perplexed.
My two-year-old won't eat anything but pizza, and I'm at my wit's end.
-
keep / have one's wits about one, to remain alert and observant; be prepared for or equal to anything.
to keep your wits about you in a crisis.
-
live by one's wits, to provide for oneself by employing ingenuity or cunning; live precariously.
We traveled around the world, living by our wits.
verb (used with or without object)
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wot,
present (1st person singular), present (3rd person singular)
-
wost,
present (2nd person singular)
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wist,
past, past participle
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witting
present participle
idioms
noun
-
the talent or quality of using unexpected associations between contrasting or disparate words or ideas to make a clever humorous effect
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speech or writing showing this quality
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a person possessing, showing, or noted for such an ability, esp in repartee
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practical intelligence (esp in the phrase have the wit to )
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dialect information or knowledge (esp in the phrase get wit of )
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archaic mental capacity or a person possessing it
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obsolete the mind or memory
verb
adverb
Synonym Usage
See humor.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wotsimple
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wostsimple
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have wistperfect
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has wistperfect
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am wittingprogressive
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are wittingprogressive
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is wittingprogressive
-
have been wittingperfect progressive
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has been wittingperfect progressive
Past
-
wistsimple
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had wistperfect
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was wittingprogressive
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were wittingprogressive
-
had been wittingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wit1
First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English: “mind, thought”; cognate with German Witz, Old Norse vit; akin to wit 2
Origin of wit2
First recorded before 900; Middle English witen, Old English witan; cognate with Dutch weten, German wissen, Old Norse vita, Gothic witan to know; akin to Latin vidēre “to see,” Greek oîda (dialect woîda “I know,” and ideîn (dialect wideîn ) “to see,” Sanskrit vidati “(he) knows”; see wot
Explanation
Wit is brainpower or mental ability, or the person who possesses such ability, especially when it's used humorously. When we are scared out of our wits, we — figuratively, anyway — lose for a moment our mental faculties. When we are at our wits' end, we have run out of ideas or possible solutions to a frustrating situation. When we outwit someone, we make the smarter decision. Historical figures known for their wit include Voltaire, Oscar Wilde, and Mark Twain.
Vocabulary lists containing wit
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act III
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Nothing But the Truth
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Essential Three-Letter Words, Part 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Armed with a quick wit and southern charm, she took control of her show business career that spanned more than 60 years.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
But even with all the music, movies, words and wit she left for us, a world without Dolly Parton is hard to imagine.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026
Likewise, Richet has plenty of his own tools: a $40 million budget, competent craftspeople, a hero capable of charisma and wit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
His tireless travel schedule and quick wit testify to his stamina -- and he also credits his third wife Rosangela da Silva, 59, with keeping him young.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026
Artemis hoped fervently that someone on the fairy team had the wit to spot the blunder he’d made during the negotiation session.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
Huang referenced an ancient Chinese myth where three ordinary people combine their wits to equal one genius.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
The trip taught him how to rely on his musical talents and his wits to survive on the road.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
At the end of each show, the judges pick two characters to face off in a battle of wits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2026
I am reasonably educated, and at 64, I still have most of my wits.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 12, 2026
Just a fairy, his wits, and maybe a touch of magic.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
After Thatcher’s Conservative successor John Major unexpectedly triumphed in the 1992 election, the tabloid boasted: “It’s the Sun wot won it.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 22, 2023
Let’s talk a little bit about wot the violence interrupters are.
From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2021
“Wot you ’ave to know about chimney flues,” he was declaring, “is that flues ’as several twists in ’em, cuz they’s attached to uvver flues wot shares one openin’.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 2, 2018
I would be devastated if I never got to taste Genet Agonafer’s doro wot again, and I’m not the one laboring in the kitchen for three days on the sauce.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2018
And if they’re in foreign languages wot I don’t understand, I shall be just as proud as if I did.”
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
The Utes surrender an average of 76 points per game, which is the wost in the conference.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 1, 2011
But this week the wost was yet to come.
From Time Magazine Archive
Assay! assay! thou simple-hearted ghost; What grace is shapen thee, thou not wost.
From Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1 Memoirs of Henry the Fifth by James Endell Tyler
And sith thou wost I do it for no wyle, And sith I am he that thou tristest most, 720 Tel me sumwhat, sin al my wo thou wost.'
From Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer
Tell me the wost, stranger; I kin stand it; but I sure hate to fetch the news hum to her.”
From Phil Bradley's Snow-shoe Trail The Mountain Boys in the Canada Wilds by Silas K. Boone
We Are Young, too, is wistful for an era that was already full of wist.
From The Guardian ● May 29, 2013
The priest wist not what to say, but answered, "What shall I do with this fool?" and the man said, "What shall I do with this fool?"
From Amusing Prose Chap Books by Various
No doubt the assertion that he wist not what to say, bears specially upon this strange offer to shelter glorified bodies from the night air, and to provide for each a place of separate repose.
From The Gospel According to St. Mark by G. A. Chadwick
To adapt Ko-Ko's celebrated song, he would say:— A boy may wear his hair in curls, or bear a pudding face, Some mothers, as you wist, that folly can't resist!
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 105, September 2nd, 1893 by Various
His wife was a wistful little body who seemed likely to have plenty to wist over before her children were raised on the living that a game-keeper would wring from the soil.
From Neighbours by Robert J. C. Stead
An agent is a paid and witting spy; he formally, sometimes covertly, works for a foreign government.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2025
“I can’t but think of partial replacements as immoral because they involve a witting decision by government agencies to leave residents at continued risk of exposure,” said Lambrinidou.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 8, 2023
And even though she’s the one holding the card, you could be on the hook too as a witting beneficiary of her actions.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2022
He was certainly involved, aware and witting of everything that was going on.
From Salon ● Apr. 22, 2016
Thus Faustus, to so many a snare of death, had now, neither willing nor witting it, begun to loosen that wherein I was taken.
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 09 — Lives and Letters by Arthur Mee
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.
