Word.ws English Dictionary

iwis

/ɪˈwɪs/

iwis adverb: certainly, surely, indeed. Also the plural of iwi.

Adverb

iwis (not comparable)

  1. (archaic, poetic) Certainly, surely, indeed.
    • Iwis, in all the Senate
      There was no heart so bold[…].1842, Thomas Macaulay, Horatius
    • God vanished long ago, iwis, A mere subjective synthesis1890, James Russell Lowell, Poetical Works

Also used as

iwis is also the plural of iwi.

Forms of iwis

alternative formiwys
alternative formywis
alternative formy-wis

Origin of iwis

From Middle English iwis, iwys, ywis (“certain, sure”), from Old English ġewiss (“certain, sure”), from Proto-West Germanic *gawiss, from Proto-Germanic *gawissaz (“known, certain, sure”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know”). Cognate with Dutch gewis (“sure”), German gewiss (“certain”), Danish vis (“sure”). More at wit, wis.

Plural formed with the suffix -s.

Questions about iwis

What does iwis mean?
Iwis means certainly, surely, indeed.
What part of speech is iwis?
Iwis is an adverb.
How do you pronounce iwis?
Iwis is pronounced /ɪˈwɪs/.

Words near iwis in the dictionary

  1. iwd
  2. IWF
  3. iwi
  4. Iwinski
  5. Iwinskis
  6. iwis
  7. IWLT
  8. Iwnw
  9. Iwo Jima
  10. Iwo To
  11. Iwon

Source and license

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