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