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witness

wit·ness/ˈwɪt.nɪs/noun, verb

witness is spelled W-I-T-N-E-S-S: 7 letters and 2 syllables (wit·ness). It appears 33 times per million words in written English, the 2,888th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, witness means “Attestation of a fact or event; testimony” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of witness is witnesses.

How many letters and syllables are in witness?

Letters7: W-I-T-N-E-S-S
Syllables2: wit·ness
In writing33 times per million words; the 2,888th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is witness?

Witness appears 33 times per million words in written English, the 2,888th 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 witness?

  • US /ˈwɪt.nɪs/
  • /ˈwɪt.nəs/

Witness has 2 syllables, split wit·ness in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-witness.ogg, En-au-witness.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of witness

  • witnesses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • witnessing participle, present
  • witnessed participle, past

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

What does witness mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Attestation of a fact or event; testimony.

    She can bear witness, since she was there at the time.

  2. 2

    One who sees or has personal knowledge of something.

    As a witness to the event, I can confirm that he really said that.

  3. 3

    Someone called to give evidence in a court.

    The witness for the prosecution did not seem very credible.

  4. 4

    One who is called upon to witness an event or action, such as a wedding or the signing of a document.

    The bridesmaid and best man at a wedding typically serve as the witnesses.

  5. 5

    Something that serves as evidence; a sign or token.

  6. 6

    A particular version of a text (seen as providing testimony of archetype or other earlier version)

  7. 7

    An additional database server instance used in failover scenarios to decide whether the mirror should take over.

    Automatic failover requires a witness, either a file share or a SQL Server witness (SQL Server Express may be used as a witness).

verb

  1. 1

    To furnish proof of, to show.

    This certificate witnesses his presence on that day.

  2. 2

    To take as evidence.

  3. 3

    To see or gain knowledge of through experience.

    He witnessed the accident.

  4. 4

    To present personal religious testimony; to preach at (someone) or on behalf of.

  5. 5

    To see the execution of (a legal instrument), and subscribe it for the purpose of establishing its authenticity.

    to witness a bond or a deed

noun

as Witness
  1. 1

    A Jehovah's Witness.

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

How do you abbreviate witness?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of witness: wit..

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

Witness in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtémoignage (attestation of a fact or event), témoin (one who has a personal knowledge of something), preuve (something that serves as evidence), témoigner ((transitive) to furnish proof of)
GermanZeugnis (attestation of a fact or event), Zeuge, Zeugin (one who has a personal knowledge of something), bezeugen ((transitive) to furnish proof of), Zeuge sein ((transitive) to see or gain knowledge of…)
Portuguesetestemunho (attestation of a fact or event), testemunha (one who has a personal knowledge of something), prova (something that serves as evidence), testemunhar ((transitive) to furnish proof of), presenciar ((transitive) to see or gain knowledge of…)
Spanishtestimonio (attestation of a fact or event), testigo (one who has a personal knowledge of something), prueba (something that serves as evidence), testificar ((transitive) to furnish proof of), probar, atestiguar ((transitive) to take as evidence)

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 witness come from?

From Middle English witnesse, from Old English ġewitnes, equivalent to wit + -ness. Cognate with Middle Dutch wetenisse (“witness, testimony”), Old High German gewiznessi (“testimony”), Icelandic vitni (“witness”).

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

What to look up after witness