to wit

adverb

That is to say; namely; specifically.

“The directors of the company, to wit, Fred Smith and Albert Jones, inform us that…”

Meanings

adverbto wit (not comparable)
  1. formalnot comparableThat is to say; namely; specifically.

    The directors of the company, to wit, Fred Smith and Albert Jones, inform us that…

    4 more examples

    The defendant is charged with possession of a controlled substance, to wit, cocaine…

    Among the arrests is a man charged with possession of stolen goods, to wit: 50 beer crates.

    Thus, I had so long suffered in this quest, Heard failure prophesied so oft, been writ So many times among "The Band"─to wit, The knights who to the Dark Tower's search addressed Their steps - that just to fail as they, seemed best, And all the doubt was now—should I be fit?

    1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section VII

    July 2000, Todd Greanier, Discover the secrets of the Java Serialization API Though the animation code above demonstrates how a thread could be included as part of an object while still making that object be serializable, there is a major problem with it if we recall how Java creates objects. To wit, when we create an object with the new keyword, the object’s constructor is called only when a new instance of a class is created.

    Synonyms: namely, scilicet, videlicet, in other words

Synonyms & antonyms

adverbThat is to say; namely; specifically.

More synonyms by meaning

adverbas follows

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Originally, a shortening of that is to wit (“that is to know”); see wit.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Afrikaans dit wil sê
  • dit wil sênamely, specifically
Chinese Mandarin 即
  • 即 (jí)namely, specifically
Danish nemlig
  • nemlignamely, specifically
Dutch te weten, namelijk
  • te wetennamely, specifically
  • namelijknamely, specifically
Esperanto nome
  • nomenamely, specifically
French à savoir, assavoir
  • à savoirnamely, specifically
  • assavoirnamely, specifically
German und zwar, als da wären
  • und zwarnamely, specifically
  • als da wärennamely, specifically
  • nämlichnamely, specifically
Italian cioè
  • cioènamely, specifically
Japanese つまり
  • つまり (tsumari)namely, specifically
Latin vidēlicet, id est
  • vidēlicetnamely, specifically
  • id estnamely, specifically
Norwegian Bokmål nemlig
  • nemlignamely, specifically
Polish mianowicie, czyli
  • mianowicienamely, specifically
  • czylinamely, specifically
  • to znaczynamely, specifically
  • to jestnamely, specifically
Portuguese isto é, ou seja
  • isto énamely, specifically
  • ou sejanamely, specifically
Russian а и́менно, то́ есть
  • а и́менно (a ímenno)namely, specifically
  • то́ есть (tó jestʹ)namely, specifically
Scottish Gaelic eadhan
  • eadhannamely, specifically
Spanish a saber
  • a sabernamely, specifically
Cite this entry
APA

to wit. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to%20wit

MLA

“to wit.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to%20wit. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “to wit,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to%20wit.

Source: to wit on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.