wittingly
/ˈwɪtɪŋli/
"wittingly" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wittingly” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - in a witting manner, intentionally, on purpose.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wittingly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˈwɪtɪŋli/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wittingly” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
wittingly is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed /ˈwɪtɪŋli/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "in a witting manner, intentionally, on purpose.".
wittingly doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English wetandly, wettanly, wetyngly, witandly, witingeliche, wittandly, wittingli, wittingly, wityngli, wityngly, witynly, wytindeliche, wytyngly, equivalent to witting + -ly. Cognate with German wissentlich. The correct English form is wittingly, spelled W-I-T-T-I-N-G-L-Y.
Definition
- 1in a witting manner, intentionally, on purpose.
Etymology
From Middle English wetandly, wettanly, wetyngly, witandly, witingeliche, wittandly, wittingli, wittingly, wityngli, wityngly, witynly, wytindeliche, wytyngly, equivalent to witting + -ly. Cognate with German wissentlich.
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
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Using “wittingly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-I-T-T-I-N-G-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɪtɪŋli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.