slow-witted
"slow-witted" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“slow-witted” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adjective - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Lacking a keen or swift intellect, not too bright or not too swift.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | slow-witted |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “slow-witted” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for slow-witted is 11 letters long, classified as an adjective. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Lacking a keen or swift intellect, not too bright or not too swift.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for slow-witted, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is slow-witted, spelled S-L-O-W---W-I-T-T-E-D.
Definition
- 1Lacking a keen or swift intellect, not too bright or not too swift.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "slow-witted"?
What does "slow-witted" mean?
What language does "slow-witted" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “slow-witted”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-L-O-W---W-I-T-T-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.