to wit
8
8.7
- idiom
- /tə wɪt/
- Archaic
:
a saber
- The committee discussed two important points, to wit: the budget and the project timeline.
Impatience demands the impossible, to wit the attainment to the end without the means.
- Impatience demands the impossible, to wit the attainment to the end without the means.
Examples
-
To wit, the guilt-related brain activity may operate neurologically to "override the competing motivation to maximize financial gain."
Academic text (2016) -
Its new knowledge is thus lodged in a previous not-knowing: to wit, there is a before and an after, a past, present, and future.
Academic text (1995) -
Father had issued a number of instructions, to wit:
Fiction book (1995) -
The first is the essential view of a value investor, to wit that nobody can really time the market successfully.
Blog text (6) -
The court explained its rationale, to wit:
Academic text (2016) -
To wit, further studies are needed to test the generalizability of our results.
Academic text (2016) -
To wit, engineering management uses a systems engineering approach to oversee the team development of products and services.
Academic text (2005) -
To wit, the film is an undeniable aesthetic success, but hardly an economic one.
Academic text (2009) -
The patient did report one negative aspect of his improved hearing: to wit, he was now able to "hear the rude and nasty things that other people say about me."
Academic text (2005) -
One thing that may disappoint you—to wit, that we cannot make a double-column page of it; the page will not be wide enough.
Academic text (2017)
Synonyms
275
2.7
To say something in a clearer way
167
3.6
To give one or more examples of something just mentioned
64
1.0
To show a list or explanation that comes next
37
3.5
To say something more clearly
To give specific examples or names
To explain something just mentioned more clearly, giving the exact meaning
To give a more exact explanation
Shows a specific example or explanation that follows
A short written phrase people use to introduce a clearer way of saying something
How Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
to + wit
The meaning 'namely' is not transparently built from the literal senses of 'to' (a preposition/infinitival marker) and 'wit' (commonly 'intelligence' or an archaic noun); the phrase is a fossilized, legal/formal connector whose current sense cannot be inferred by a B1 learner from the parts. Its usage is idiomatic and historically derived, so knowing the constituents would not reliably lead a learner to the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
To wit comes from old formal writing where writers would add a short note before giving exact items or details. It worked like saying 'namely' or 'that is to say', so today it is used to introduce an explanation or list.