1
as in insanity
lack of good sense or judgment
his astounding feats of witlessness are the stuff of family legend
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in thickness
the quality or state of lacking intelligence or quickness of mind
for sheer witlessness the movie's dialogue deserves some sort of award
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of witlessness
No, but the line captures the aristocracy’s witlessness.
—
Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2025
Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for witlessness
Noun
-
Adair Fish pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on May 4, a spokesperson with the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said.—
Laura Bauer
June 2,
Kansas City Star,
2 June 2026
-
The Dutchman pleaded guilty to the murder charges, claiming temporary insanity.—
Lynsey Eidell,
PEOPLE,
30 May 2026
Noun
-
If thickness varies greatly, pound to an even thickness of about 1/2 inch.—
Emily Weinstein,
Twin Cities,
4 June 2026
-
Once your hair is fully coated in the product, section it into two parts (or more, depending on your hair's thickness and density).—
Amanda Le,
InStyle,
4 June 2026
Noun
-
As the saying goes, there is no great genius without some touch of madness.—
Amy Lawrence,
New York Times,
31 May 2026
-
Some families came from beyond the KC area to catch the banana madness.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
31 May 2026
Noun
-
In an email to Krebs, Valadon claimed that the repo’s commit logs show that GitHub’s default protections against committing secrets—protections designed to protect unwitting or unskilled developers against exactly this kind of stupidness—had been disabled by the repo’s administrator.—
Lee Hutchinson,
ArsTechnica,
19 May 2026
Noun
-
The project posed several issues for an artist who had always emphasized clarity and simplicity in his solitary picture-taking.—
James Quandt,
Artforum,
2 June 2026
-
Baoase is also transporting, as any memorable hotel should be, with a strong Asian-esque design that includes ubiquitous Balinese Hindu statues, idols, and sculptures, and a reliance on simplicity over dazzle.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
2 June 2026
Noun
-
Don’t just try to be brilliant; focus on avoiding stupidity.—
Nilton Bernini,
Forbes.com,
1 June 2026
-
Nobody doggedly builds a stand-up career that takes them from clubs to theaters to selling out arena tours from a foundation of genuine stupidity.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
28 May 2026
Noun
-
This is a racist absurdity in addition to being an impossible read of the Constitution, which is perhaps why the Roberts Court has buried it under so many layers of obfuscation.—
Adam Serwer,
The Atlantic,
5 June 2026
-
Often, that makes for a hilarious juxtaposition with the work of the show’s production designer Sharon Lomofsky, who brilliantly captures the absurdity of certain vacation destinations like a barbecue restaurant a stone’s throw from the remote Upstate New York hotel the characters are staying at.—
Marcus Jones,
IndieWire,
3 June 2026
Noun
-
Unlike its sibling concepts of dumbness and idiocy, stupidity isn’t really a personality trait.—
Jonny Thomson,
Big Think,
11 Feb. 2026
-
Compare that to punk rock, which used dumbness as a tactic.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
14 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Witlessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/witlessness. Accessed 8 Jun. 2026.
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