1
as in dumb
not having or showing an ability to absorb ideas readily
a dog so witless that it is barely trainable
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in stupid
showing or marked by a lack of good sense or judgment
a witless decision to relocate to the other side of the country without even the prospect of a job
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of witless
Witherspoon’s timing is whip-crack good, and Ferrell’s is, too, on a different wavelength, even when the material’s settling for surprisingly witless profanity punchlines that don’t quiiiiite qualify as actual jokes.
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Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, 30 Jan. 2025
The federal government, in all its wisdom, is once again gearing up to save the witless American people from themselves.
—Noah Rothman, National Review, 3 Jan. 2025
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 this latest effort, premiering on Prime Video, proves a relentlessly vulgar and witless affair that not even the talents of stars Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon and a comedically gifted supporting cast can rescue.
—Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for witless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for witless
Adjective
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Okay, there's trying something new and then there's just being dumb.—
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Why portray Dorothy as a doe-eyed ding-a-ling; as not just naive but dumb?—
Adjective
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Set in a perpetually sunny, idealized England vaguely between the wars, The Code of the Woosters concerns the misadventures of man-about-town Bertie Wooster (stupid, amiable, rich) and his impeccably helpful valet Jeeves.—
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At Amiri’s trial last year, Manly-Williams was brushed off by the defense as the stupidest witness prosecutors presented.—
Adjective
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Traditional humanoid robots depend heavily on data collected by human operators, which is slow and expensive.—
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Her days were slow and intentional.—
Adjective
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House’s agenda is to get Cooper to reveal himself as secretly working against Vault-Tec for resistance leader Lee Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury), but Cooper isn’t that foolish.—
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The Giants would be foolish to pay Harbaugh a ton of money and then not take full advantage of his expertise in the science of winning.—
Adjective
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This simple design works well once the engine is already moving very fast.—
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Do this simple test to find out if your soil is ready.—
Adjective
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This struck many experts as silly.—
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Frequent co-stars Johnson and Hart, known for their hilarious chemistry, have played Rock, Paper, Scissors and other silly games in promos for their movies, especially their Jumanji films.—
Adjective
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On its face, the government's defense appears to be that the individuals behind these statements are ignorant or incompetent, or both.—
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The citizens of Oz are treated as no more than an undifferentiated crowd of extras, an ignorant and finally disposable monolith.—
Adjective
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After the first Roundtable, Survivor stalwart Rob Cesternino — perhaps clued in by Candiace’s absurd conga line ploy to get people out of the kitchen — sniffed out that a murder in plain sight could be happening.—
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Contrary to what many may think, the researchers found no correlation between a person’s level of education and their capacity to believe in absurd conspiracies.—
Cite this Entry
“Witless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/witless. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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