wits
plural noun
(sometimes singular) the ability to reason and act, esp quickly (esp in the phrase have one's wits about one )
Showing results for "wits"
- plural of wit.
wits
1 British
/ wɪts /
plural noun
-
(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
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obsolete the five senses or mental faculties
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to gain a livelihood by craftiness and cunning rather than by hard work
Wits
2
British
/ wɪts /
noun
Explanation
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."
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:
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
For those who retain their wits, the open questions are still interesting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 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
“Do not frighten the wits out of the poor thing!”
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
Professor Andrew Forbes of Wits University, the study's corresponding author, says the transformation in this field over the past 20 years has been remarkable.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 26, 2026
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
On the campus of Johannesburg's Wits University, a troupe of student actors is performing a pop-up parody of the election.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2024
Although I was to discover a core of sympathetic whites who became friends and later colleagues, most of the whites at Wits were not liberal or color-blind.
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.
