wiss

W4I1S1S1

verb

To know; to understand.

OriginGerman Wiss →
UncommonScrabble 7
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Meanings

wiss1

verbwiss (third-person singular simple present wisses, present participle wissing, simple past and past participle wissed)

present singular third person wisses · participle present wissing · participle past wissed · past wissed · alternative wis

  1. archaicTo know; to understand.

    Now with their might they downe me pull, and bring me where they woll, the Blood of myne heart I wiss now causeth both Joy and blisse.

    1652, Elias Ashmole, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum
    1 more example

    And though that the water be gross and heavy, yet nothing so gross as the earth, I wiss; therefore by heat it is vapoured up lightly, and in the air maketh clouds and mists.

    1874, A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Dodsley et al.

Wiss2

proper nounWiss (plural Wisses)

plural Wisses

  1. A surname from German.

Origin

wiss · verb

Perhaps an alteration of wis, taken from the incorrect division of iwis (“surely, certainly”) as "I wis", and mistaken for a verb; see wis. Perhaps from (certainly akin to) Old English witan (“to know”); see wit.

Full word history & related roots →

Wiss · proper noun

  1. GermanWiss
  2. EnglishWiss

Borrowed from German Wiss.

More words from German

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

“wiss.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wiss. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wiss,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wiss.

Source: wiss on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.