Meanings
- archaicuncountableInward knowledge or understanding.
"Will it make you happy?" / "Probably not," Kai said irritably. "Inwit tells me that you're trouble from the beginning."
1990, Midori Snyder, Sadar's Keep, New York: Tom Doherty Associates - archaicuncountableConscience; inward sense of morality.
Speaking to me. They wash and tub and scrub. Agenbite of inwit. Conscience.
1920, James Joyce, Ulysses1 more example
"I knew that was so. Every time that inwit twanged ─ I have conscience like you, reverend sir!"
1960, Marcia Davenport, Constant Image
Origin
- Old English*inwitt
- Middle Englishinwit“mind, reason, intellect, understanding; soul, spirit; feeling; the collection of inner faculties; one of five inner faculties; one of the outer bodily senses.; inward awareness of right or wrong, conscience”
- Englishinwit
From Middle English inwit (“mind, reason, intellect, understanding; soul, spirit; feeling; the collection of inner faculties; one of five inner faculties; one of the outer bodily senses.; inward awareness of right or wrong, conscience”), from Old English *inwitt, inġewitnes (“consciousness, conscience, knowledge, knowing”), equivalent to in- + wit. Compare Scots inwit, Saterland Frisian Gewieten, West Frisian gewisse, Dutch geweten, German Low German Geweten, German Gewissen.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
inwit. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inwit
“inwit.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inwit. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “inwit,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inwit.
Source: inwit on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.