to wit

English

Etymology

Originally that is to wit (“that is to know”). See wit.

Adverb

to wit (not comparable)

1. (formal) That is to say; namely; specifically.

   The directors of the company, to wit, Fred Smith and Albert Jones, inform us that…

   The defendant is charged with possession of a controlled substance, to wit, cocaine…

   • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section VII:

     Thus, I had so long suffered in this quest,
     Heard failure prophesied so oft, been writ
     So many times among "The Band"─to wit,
     The knights who to the Dark Tower's search addressed
     Their steps - that just to fail as they, seemed best,
     And all the doubt was now—should I be fit?

   • July 2000, Todd Greanier, Discover the secrets of the Java Serialization API

     Though the animation code above demonstrates how a thread could be included as part of an object while still making that object be serializable, there is a major problem with it if we recall how Java creates objects. To wit, when we create an object with the new keyword, the object’s constructor is called only when a new instance of a class is created.

Synonyms

• namely, scilicet, videlicet; see also Thesaurus:specifically or Thesaurus:in other words

Translations

namely, specifically

• Afrikaans: dit wil sê
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 即 (zh) (jí)

• Danish: nemlig (da)
• Dutch: te weten, namelijk (nl)
• Esperanto: nome (eo)
• French: à savoir (fr), (obsolete, except in Canada) assavoir (fr)
• German: und zwar, als da wären, nämlich (de)
• Italian: cioè (it)
• Japanese: つまり (ja) (tsumari)
• Latin: vidēlicet, id est (la)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: nemlig (no)

  Nynorsk: nemleg

• Polish: mianowicie (pl), a mianowicie, a konkretnie, czyli (pl)
• Portuguese: isto é (pt), ou seja (pt)
• Russian: а и́менно (ru) (a ímenno), то́ есть (ru) (tó jestʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: eadhan
• Spanish: a saber (es)