witlessness

noun

Definition of witlessnessnext
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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of witlessness No, but the line captures the aristocracy’s witlessness. — Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for witlessness
  1. insanity
  2. thickness
  3. madness
  4. stupidness
  5. simplicity
  6. stupidity
  7. absurdity
  8. dumbness
Noun
  • Yates was eventually found not guilty by reason of insanity and remains committed to a state mental health facility.
    — Deborah Becker, NPR, 16 Aug. 2026
  • Ulrich plays the enigmatic and manipulative cult leader, who pleads insanity and claims to be taking his commands directly from God.
    — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of insanity
Noun
  • Sheriff Byron Roberson said deputies deployed 10 Taser probes, but some were ineffective, potentially because of the thickness of Lunceford’s construction clothing.
    — Ben Wheeler, Kansas City Star, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Go back over the line one more time at the end with firmer pressure to create more thickness or make the line darker if desired.
    — Patricia Shannon, Southern Living, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of thickness
Noun
  • Third, the powder and paint was relentless to the point of ecstatic madness—exactly as Jouvert is meant to be.
    — Baz Dreisinger, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2026
  • During the madness, Steven Bodner and another man, both 23, were stabbed on Nagle Ave.
    — Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 15 Aug. 2026
Definition of madness
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
Definition of stupidness
Noun
  • The simplicity of the fire and forget mechanism allows its operators to launch large drone swarms to carry out coordinated attacks.
    — Abhishek Bhardwaj, Interesting Engineering, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Protect Responsive Performance Responsive performance is a usability principle teams should not sacrifice for visual simplicity.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of simplicity
Noun
  • The latest contestant in this recurring game of fiscal stupidity is Miami.
    — Mike Bianchi, The Orlando Sentinel, 6 Aug. 2026
  • That’s only made worse by the fact that it’s treated as some kind of grand betrayal rather than an impulsive act of youthful stupidity that will make for a good story one day.
    — David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 29 July 2026
Definition of stupidity
Noun
  • Instead, the museum focuses on language, relationships, self-mockery, and life’s absurdities, with rakija served to visitors as the ultimate symbol of Balkan resilience.
    — George Nelson, ARTnews.com, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Zinn also lived through some of the absurdities that Yossarian encountered.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of absurdity
Noun
  • The first 10 minutes are an incredible swirl of paranoia, alcoholism, and sluggish dumbness when Gould just needs to feed his cat.
    — Eric Farwell, Entertainment Weekly, 12 June 2026
  • Unlike its sibling concepts of dumbness and idiocy, stupidity isn’t really a personality trait.
    — Jonny Thomson, Big Think, 11 Feb. 2026
Definition of dumbness

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witlessness
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Cite this Entry

“Witlessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/witlessness. Accessed 21 Aug. 2026.

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