Word.ws English Dictionary

inwit

/ˈɪnwɪt/

inwit noun: inward knowledge or understanding.

Noun

inwit (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) Inward knowledge or understanding.
    • "Will it make you happy?" / "Probably not," Kai said irritably. "Inwit tells me that you're trouble from the beginning."1990, Midori Snyder, Sadar's Keep, New York: Tom Doherty Associates
  2. (archaic) Conscience; inward sense of morality.
    • Speaking to me. They wash and tub and scrub. Agenbite of inwit. Conscience.1920, James Joyce, Ulysses
    • "I knew that was so. Every time that inwit twanged ─ I have conscience like you, reverend sir!"1960, Marcia Davenport, Constant Image

Origin of inwit

From Middle English inwit (“mind, reason, intellect, understanding; soul, spirit; feeling; the collection of inner faculties; one of five inner faculties; one of the outer bodily senses.; inward awareness of right or wrong, conscience”), from Old English *inwitt, inġewitnes (“consciousness, conscience, knowledge, knowing”), equivalent to in- + wit. Compare Scots inwit, Saterland Frisian Gewieten, West Frisian gewisse, Dutch geweten, German Low German Geweten, German Gewissen.

Questions about inwit

What does inwit mean?
Inwit means inward knowledge or understanding.
What part of speech is inwit?
Inwit is a noun.
How do you pronounce inwit?
Inwit is pronounced /ˈɪnwɪt/.

Words near inwit in the dictionary

  1. inwicking
  2. inwicks
  3. inwind
  4. inwinding
  5. inwinds
  6. inwit
  7. inwomb
  8. inwombed
  9. inwombing
  10. inwombs
  11. inwone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: inwit (page history and authors). 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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