Standard Lemma guide

wittingly

adv · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈwɪtɪŋli/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: W IH1 T IH0 NG L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adv

Meaning 1

in a witting manner, intentionally, on purpose.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: witfully

Antonyms: unwittingly

2

adverb

Meaning 2

with full knowledge and deliberation

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • he wittingly deleted the references

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: knowingly

Antonyms: unwittingly

History

Etymology

From Middle English wetandly, wettanly, wetyngly, witandly, witingeliche, wittandly, wittingli, wittingly, wityngli, wityngly, witynly, wytindeliche, wytyngly, equivalent to witting + -ly. Cognate with German wissentlich.

Across languages

Translations

6 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: съзнателно (sǎznatelno) — intentionally, on purpose
  • Bulgarian: преднамерено (prednamereno) — intentionally, on purpose
  • Chinese Mandarin: 明知 (míngzhī) — intentionally, on purpose
  • Georgian: შეგნებულად (šegnebulad) — intentionally, on purpose
  • Irish: i bhfios — intentionally, on purpose
  • Irish: go feasach — intentionally, on purpose