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Glite Dictionary
witting

witting

2 8.6
Knowing something and doing it on purpose
  • adjective
  • /ˈwɪtɪŋ/
translation icon : intencionado
  • As a witting participant in the scheme, he knew exactly what was happening.
  • witting agent
  • witting and unwitting

And so that, and again, that falls under the witting side of it, right?

Examples

  • Other imponderables include the ambiguities surrounding witting and unwitting sources and, most obviously, the incentives for intelligence officers to exaggerate the value of both their information and their sources.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Although Reichel-Dolmatoff, having participated in the Hitlerite purge known as "the Night of the Long Knives," argues against him being an active or witting part of the Nazi left wing...

    Blog text (3)

  • An "Access Agent" may or may not be witting of what they are doing.

    Blog text (23)

  • And so that, and again, that falls under the witting side of it, right?

    Julian Dorey

  • "My mugger": I do not enjoy putting those two words together, but I can't avoid the fact that I have a relationship with the witting cause of all these troubles.

    Academic text (1998)

  • Witting notes that trials at the OSU facility included work on powdery mildew.

    Academic text (1996)

  • She made a witting decision to support the controversial policy after careful consideration.

  • Being a witting observer of the negotiations, he understood the implications of their decisions.

Synonyms

conscious
vswitting
142 3.7

Done on purpose with full awareness

focuses more on knowing about something and acting on that knowledge
witted
vswitting
  • Archaic
1 9.9

Being aware of something

emphasizes both awareness and deliberate doing rather than mere knowing
knowing
vswitting
4.7

Done on purpose with full awareness

adds the idea of being aware and then choosing to act

Antonyms

ignorant
367 3.7

Not knowing about something or how it works

unaware
175 2.9

Not knowing that something is happening or true

unwitting
17 6.7

Not aware of what is happening and not done on purpose

How Aware

deliberate
125 4.1
witting
2 8.6
aware
∞ 2.7
unaware
175 2.9

Surface Forms

witting positive

Morphology

witting = wit (semi-transparent) = wit + ing

Formally derived from the verb 'wit' + '-ing', but the verb 'wit' ('to know') is archaic and 'wit' is more familiar to learners as a noun meaning humor, so the link may not be obvious to B1 learners.

Etymology

The word witting comes from the old English root witan, meaning 'to know', and is related to the simple English word wit which points to knowledge. So witting means doing something while 'knowing', or deliberately, the opposite of 'unwitting'.