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outwit

/aʊtˈwɪt/verb

outwit is spelled O-U-T-W-I-T: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 54,192nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, outwit means “To get the better of; to outsmart, to beat in a competition of wits” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in outwit?

Letters6: O-U-T-W-I-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 3 million words; the 54,192nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is outwit?

Outwit appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 54,192nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce outwit?

  • US /aʊtˈwɪt/

Outwit has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-outwit.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with outwit?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as outwit from its last stressed vowel (/ɪt/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of outwit

  • outwits present, singular, he/she/it
  • outwitting participle, present
  • outwitted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does outwit mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To get the better of; to outsmart, to beat in a competition of wits.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Outwit in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense to beat in a battle of wits:

LanguageWords
Frenchêtre plus malin
Spanishengañar, aventajar, burlar, ser más listo que

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does outwit come from?

From out- + wit.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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