witless

adjective

wit·​less ˈwit-ləs 

1

: lacking wit or understanding : foolish

2

: mentally unsound

… drive one witless with anxiety.

—William Styron

witlessly adverb

witlessness noun

Synonyms

• airheaded
• birdbrained
• bonehead
• boneheaded
• brain-dead
• brainless
• bubbleheaded
• chuckleheaded
• dense
• dim
• dim-witted
• doltish
• dopey
• dopy
• dorky [slang]
• dull
• dumb
• dunderheaded
• empty-headed
• fatuous
• gormless [chiefly British]
• half-witted
• knuckleheaded
• lamebrain
• lamebrained
• lunkheaded
• mindless
• oafish
• obtuse
• opaque
• pinheaded
• senseless
• simple
• slow
• slow-witted
• soft
• softheaded
• stupid
• thick
• thick-witted
• thickheaded
• unintelligent
• unsmart
• vacuous
• weak-minded

Examples of witless in a Sentence

He committed a witless blunder.

a dog so witless that it is barely trainable

Recent Examples on the Web

By most accounts, Trump’s ground game—powered by the witless Musk—was a bit of a mess, but Harris’s professional field operation seems to have been helpless to stem the tide of Trump’s support. —The New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2024

But apparently, California just couldn’t abide this challenge to its primacy as the most witless state in the union. —Noah Rothman, National Review, 23 Sep. 2024

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008) To borrow Jeff Bridges’s description of the magazine that Simon Pegg’s character once ran, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is witless. —Matthew Jacobs, Vulture, 12 Apr. 2024

Police believed the perpetrators were the yakuza, who were irked by Itami’s portrayal of them as witless bullies outsmarted by a cunning attorney (played by Itami’s actress wife Nobuko Miyamoto, who starred in all of his films) in Minbo. —Jessica Wang, EW.com, 22 Dec. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

witless

adjective

wit·​less ˈwit-ləs 

: lacking wit : foolish

witlessly adverb

witlessness noun