wiss
obsolete
wiss is spelled W-I-S-S: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, wiss means “To know; to understand” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in wiss?
| Letters | 4: W-I-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 16 million words; the 121,279th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is wiss?
Wiss appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th 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 wiss?
Wiss has one syllable (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).
Forms of wiss
- wisses present, singular, he/she/it
- wissing participle, present
- wissed participle, past
- wis
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does wiss mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
archaicTo know; to understand.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does wiss come from?
Perhaps an alteration of wis, taken from the incorrect division of iwis (“surely, certainly”) as "I wis", and mistaken for a verb; see wis. Perhaps from (certainly akin to) Old English witan (“to know”); see wit.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).