1
as in lunatic
a person who lacks good sense or judgment
don't be a nitwit—wear a seat belt!
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in idiot
a stupid person
an absolute nitwit as far as geography is concerned
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in fool
a silly flighty person
a nitwit who never should have been given a position of responsibility in the company
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of nitwit
Occasionally, some nitwit will play chicken with the offending lane changer, get in front of him or her, and stop the car in the middle of the road to continue with verbal and nonverbal critique of the offender’s driving skills.
—
Oc Register, 18 May 2026
In each show, the two nitwits would set out on some caper, which would inevitably go horribly wrong, leaving them broke, or tied up, or in jail, or hanging over a cliff, or some other situation of great peril.
—John Cassidy, New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2026
The plot involves risqué photos of someone in the royal family being used as collateral, and poor Terry and his nitwit crew were tricked into trying to steal these from the bank instead of money.
—Mike Ryan, Vulture, 31 Mar. 2025
At one point, in the role of a former C.I.A. agent, Walter Lloyd, Hackman stubs a gun under the nose of a hapless nitwit from the agency who has been sent to protect Walter and his family.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2025
The nitwits were chased off by a woman from the local library board.
—Neal Rubin, Detroit Free Press, 25 July 2024
This childish nitwit called the judge deciding his case a Nazi, which earned him an extra five months in the J6 choir.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 11 June 2024
Oc Register, 18 May 2026
In each show, the two nitwits would set out on some caper, which would inevitably go horribly wrong, leaving them broke, or tied up, or in jail, or hanging over a cliff, or some other situation of great peril.
—John Cassidy, New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2026
The plot involves risqué photos of someone in the royal family being used as collateral, and poor Terry and his nitwit crew were tricked into trying to steal these from the bank instead of money.
—Mike Ryan, Vulture, 31 Mar. 2025
At one point, in the role of a former C.I.A. agent, Walter Lloyd, Hackman stubs a gun under the nose of a hapless nitwit from the agency who has been sent to protect Walter and his family.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2025
The nitwits were chased off by a woman from the local library board.
—Neal Rubin, Detroit Free Press, 25 July 2024
This childish nitwit called the judge deciding his case a Nazi, which earned him an extra five months in the J6 choir.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 11 June 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nitwit
Noun
-
Mark Hamill has been a lunatic for years now.—
Zach Dean OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
8 May 2026
-
To get a sentence like that in a communist, radically left-wing city of liberal lunatics is truly amazing.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
29 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
At the Kaseya Center the evening before UFC 327, White expressed concern that his team’s plan to pin down the President the next day to show him logistical plans for the White House event would be a fool’s errand.—
Sean Gregory,
Time,
26 May 2026
-
The Beach By Whispering Angel Don't let the Trader Joe's title fool you, this is a bottle that is widely available, too.—
Kait Hanson,
Southern Living,
23 May 2026
Noun
-
Lluís then calls Puig Antich a moron.—
Colm Tóibín,
The Atlantic,
14 Mar. 2026
-
This drunk moron — quite different from his character in the novel — bears a ton of blame.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
13 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
There’s a tramp, a ditz, a bad boss, a hippie, a by-the-book good girl.—
Emily Nussbaum,
New Yorker,
2 Apr. 2026
-
Rather than stay pigeonholed as a ditz, Simpson (who just released new music for the first time in 15 years) went on to launch her own fashion brand, which hit $1 billion in sales in 2015 and is still going strong today.—
EW Staff,
EW.com,
20 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
Way cheaper and faster than sending an assistant on a wild goose chase.—
Chris Cardillo,
Rolling Stone,
26 May 2026
-
The cynical, hedonistic Ray experiences love for the first time with a goose voiced by Broadway star Annaleigh Ashford, who gets to show off her talents with a handful of musical numbers.—
Alison Herman,
Variety,
22 May 2026
Noun
-
My dad has always said the lottery is a tax on the stupid.—
Alex Crippen,
CNBC,
4 Apr. 2026
-
The scale of the headloss was best summed up by Luis Suarez attempting to reason with Messi, before the Argentine did anything on the Suarez scale of stupid.—
Phil Hay,
New York Times,
23 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
But no, sillies: Bradley is white, famous and pretty — no jail time for her!—
Kimberly Roots,
TVLine,
17 Sep. 2025
-
It was shot in portrait because it was shot in Instagram by and for a woman who was losing her mind in quarantine and had fully let the sillies take the wheel.—
Ego Nwodim,
TIME,
12 Feb. 2025
Noun
-
Instead of a Buffy-like television show, however, this one recreates a fictional slasher franchise called Camp Miasma, a typical homicidal-maniac-versus-horny-teens-in-the-woods series that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Friday the 13th movies.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
20 May 2026
-
This is the same show that features Mad Dog Russo screaming like a maniac into the camera every week, right?—
Zach Dean OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
23 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Nitwit.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nitwit. Accessed 29 May. 2026.
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