as in mind
the normal or healthy condition of the mental abilities
scared out of her wits
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
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 wits
Despite her efforts to avoid it, 9-year-old Lamia is chosen among her classmates and must use her wits and imagination to gather the ingredients.
—
Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 6 Feb. 2026
Keep your wits about you today, for your own sake.
—Georgia Nicols, Denver Post, 5 Feb. 2026
That’s one of my favorite date things to do, play chess and match wits with a lady.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 4 Feb. 2026
Kevin's dream of being home alone quickly turns into a hilarious nightmare and battle of wits when a pair of bumbling thieves attempts to break into his house.
—Sophie Dodd, PEOPLE, 31 Jan. 2026
Scared out of their wits, Islanders fled.
—Literary Hub, 28 Jan. 2026
Conversations between Linda and Bradley play like a high-stakes battle of wits, but their director is never so far away as to make the match feel lawless.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 26 Jan. 2026
Scavengers Reign follows a group of spaceship crew members stranded on an alien planet who must use their wits to survive.
—Ilana Gordon, Entertainment Weekly, 19 Jan. 2026
His wits and ingenuity versus the knights’ brutality and violence is a worthy match.
—Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 16 Jan. 2026
Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 6 Feb. 2026
Keep your wits about you today, for your own sake.
—Georgia Nicols, Denver Post, 5 Feb. 2026
That’s one of my favorite date things to do, play chess and match wits with a lady.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 4 Feb. 2026
Kevin's dream of being home alone quickly turns into a hilarious nightmare and battle of wits when a pair of bumbling thieves attempts to break into his house.
—Sophie Dodd, PEOPLE, 31 Jan. 2026
Scared out of their wits, Islanders fled.
—Literary Hub, 28 Jan. 2026
Conversations between Linda and Bradley play like a high-stakes battle of wits, but their director is never so far away as to make the match feel lawless.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 26 Jan. 2026
Scavengers Reign follows a group of spaceship crew members stranded on an alien planet who must use their wits to survive.
—Ilana Gordon, Entertainment Weekly, 19 Jan. 2026
His wits and ingenuity versus the knights’ brutality and violence is a worthy match.
—Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 16 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wits
Noun
-
Naumov doesn’t enter with the same pressure as Malinin but has already exceeded expectations in his mind.—
Greg Rosenstein,
NBC news,
13 Feb. 2026
-
For the launch colorway, a vivid graphic may initially bring to mind heat maps with its application of blue, green, yellow and red — but the choice was actually made to invoke a temporal fold, a theoretical concept of bending spacetime to move faster than the speed of light.—
Ian Servantes,
Footwear News,
13 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Voters must understand that the college affordability crisis was engineered by perverse incentives and that free-market reforms can help restore sanity to the system.—
Neetu Arnold,
Washington Post,
10 Feb. 2026
-
Save your rosary beads — and your sanity — for whenever Sweden comes on the TV.—
Sean Keeler,
Denver Post,
7 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Wits.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wits. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
