Word.ws English Dictionary

halfwit

/ˈhæf.wɪt/

halfwit noun: someone lacking in intelligence.

Noun

halfwit (plural halfwits)

  1. (informal) Someone lacking in intelligence.
    • It has been pointed out in this space before that a number of the titles you'll find shelved under self-help in your local bookshop are, on closer examination, farragos of wooden-headed tripe, written by mountebanks and halfwits.2007 June 15, Oliver Burkeman, “The rise of the anti-self-help movement”, in The Guardian
    • “Doesn't matter. That man is not the leader.” “But he is the main guy on the show.” “He is an actor, Nandor. A simpleton who paints his face. He is an empty-headed puppet who thinks the world loves him, when in actual fact, he is nothing more than a lapdog begging for scraps.” [groans] “No, he is...2024 November 25, Max Brockman, “P.I. Undercover: New York” (11:26 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 6, episode 8, spoken by Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry)

halfwit meaning in Urdu and Malayalam

halfwit in Urdu

halfwit, numbskull, numskull, oaf
ابلہ ablā

halfwit in Malayalam

fool, idiot, ass
വിഡ്ഢി, വിചേതസ്സ്, മൂഢൻ, മുഹേരൻ, മൃത്പിണ്ഡബുദ്ധി, മണ്ടൻ

Synonyms of halfwit

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of halfwit

pluralhalfwits
alternative formhalf-wit

Origin of halfwit

From half + wit. First attested in 1607.

Words formed from halfwit

Questions about halfwit

What does halfwit mean?
Halfwit means someone lacking in intelligence.
What is halfwit in Urdu?
Halfwit in Urdu is ابلہ (ablā). See Halfwit meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is halfwit?
Halfwit is a noun.
How do you pronounce halfwit?
Halfwit is pronounced /ˈhæf.wɪt/.
What is the plural of halfwit?
The plural of halfwit is halfwits.

Words near halfwit in the dictionary

  1. Halfweg
  2. halfwidth
  3. halfwidths
  4. halfwild
  5. halfwise
  6. halfwit
  7. halfwitch
  8. halfwitches
  9. halfwits
  10. halfwitted
  11. halfwittedly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: halfwit (page history and authors); ابلہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); halfwit (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-halfwit.wav.

Cite this entry: “halfwit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/halfwit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.