wit

Meaning

1. Sanity.
2. (obsolete) The senses.
3. Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.
4. The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.
5. Intelligence; common sense.
6. Humour, especially when clever or quick.
7. A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.

intellect

ability

capacity of mind

comic fellow

learning ability

mental capacity

witster

witty person

witty

reasoning power

witty remark

intelligent person

thinking power

witty fellow/person

wittcism

witty fellow

eutrapelia

comical fellow

funny fellow

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/wɪt/

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 weet, German Witz, Danish vid, Swedish vett, Norwegian Bokmål vett, Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌹 (unwiti, “ignorance”), Latin vīdī (“see (pf.)”), Bulgarian вям (vjam), Russian ве́дать (védatʹ), Sanskrit विद्या (vidyā). Compare wise.