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 obtuseness
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
  • Counsel was enraged that his gambit was foiled by one jury holdout on the insanity argument.
    — Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Prosecutors questioned the schizophrenia diagnosis and pointed out that suffering from mental illness is not the same as meeting the legal standard of insanity.
    — Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of insanity
Noun
  • While the polyester fabric isn’t ideal, I was impressed by the coat’s thickness and weight, which gave it a more luxurious feel than typical poly-blend coats.
    — Irene Richardson, InStyle, 29 Sep. 2026
  • By adjusting the concentration of ions and the thickness of the ionogel, the team created devices with different response speeds.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of thickness
Noun
  • Zosia Mamet, Jason Schwartzman, Chris O’Dowd, Billie Lourd, and Will Price flit in and out of the picture, some trying to act as the voices of reason and others cheering on the madness.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Does this guy go to a movie or play, or even read a book, to escape the madness?
    — Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 4 Oct. 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
  • But the beautiful simplicity of East of Eden has always been its idea that nothing is finished.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 2 Oct. 2026
  • These poems are made with some of the simplicity and directness of a song.
    — Colm Tóibín, Literary Hub, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of simplicity
Noun
  • Learning that countless more people will lose their lives on account of his neglect, greed, and stupidity, he is pressed, reluctantly, into a most self-serving mode of damage control.
    — Justin Chang, New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2026
  • Nerdiest song for drummers This will probably come down to stupidity.
    — Devon Ivie, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of stupidity
Noun
  • Sadly, Showalter and the scriptwriter, Nick Antosca, are completely unable to meet these demands, with the result that the absurdities are all on the screen.
    — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2026
  • None of this ever accumulates much weight, however, since the conflicts are all dulled by the one-note absurdity of the farcical plotting.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 29 Sep. 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

Browse Nearby Words

witless
witlessness
witness
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Cite this Entry

“Witlessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/witlessness. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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