half-wit

Questions about half-wit

What does half-wit mean?

half-wit means "a person of subnormal intelligence". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in half-wit?

half-wit has 2 syllables and divides as half--wit under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

What is another word for half-wit?

Close synonyms include idiot, imbecile, cretin, moron, changeling. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is half-wit a common word?

half-wit is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.