What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Joy vs Wit - What's the difference?

joy | wit |

As nouns the difference between joy and wit

is that joy is a feeling of extreme happiness or cheerfulness, especially related to the acquisition or expectation of something good while wit is sanity.

As verbs the difference between joy and wit

is that joy is to feel joy, to rejoice while wit is know, be aware of construed with of when used intransitively.

As a proper noun Joy

is {{given name|female|from=English}}.

As a preposition wit is

{{en-SoE}} an alternative spelling of lang=en.

joy

English

(wikipedia joy)

Noun

  • A feeling of extreme happiness or cheerfulness, especially related to the acquisition or expectation of something good.
  • a child's joy on Christmas morning
  • * , chapter=10
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.}}
  • Anything that causes such a feeling.
  • * Bible, 1 Thess. ii. 20
  • Ye are our glory and joy .
  • * Keats
  • A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
  • (obsolete) The sign or exhibition of joy; gaiety; merriment; festivity.
  • * Spenser
  • Such joy made Una, when her knight she found.
  • * Dryden
  • The roofs with joy resound.

    Antonyms

    * (feeling of happiness) infelicity, joylessness, unhappiness, unjoy

    Derived terms

    * bundle of joy * cocky's joy * enjoy * joyance * joyful * joygasm * joyless * joyous * joy ride * joystick * jump for joy * killjoy * no joy * overjoy * traveller's joy * unjoy

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To feel joy, to rejoice.
  • *:
  • *:for oftymes or this oure lord shewed hym vnto good men and vnto good knyghtes in lykenes of an herte But I suppose from hens forth ye shalle see no more / and thenne they Ioyed moche / and dwelled ther alle that day / And vpon the morowe whan they had herde masse / they departed and commaunded the good man to god
  • *1885 , Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night , Night 18:
  • *:I swore readily enough to this and he joyed with exceeding joy and embraced me round the neck while love for him possessed my whole heart.
  • (archaic) To enjoy.
  • *1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.i.2:
  • *:For from the time that Scudamour her bought, / In perilous fight, she neuer ioyed day.
  • *Milton
  • *:Who might have lived and joyed immortal bliss.
  • (obsolete) To give joy to; to congratulate.
  • *Dryden
  • *:Joy us of our conquest.
  • *Prior
  • *:To joy the friend, or grapple with the foe.
  • (obsolete) To gladden; to make joyful; to exhilarate.
  • *Shakespeare
  • *:Neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits.
  • Statistics

    *

    wit

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl) . Compare (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Sanity.
  • The senses.
  • Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.
  • The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.
  • Intelligence; common sense.
  • Humour, especially when clever or quick.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;
  • A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.
  • Synonyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    * brevity is the soul of wit * collect one's wits * gather one's wits * have one’s wits about one * inwit * mother wit * native wit * scare out of one’s wits * witcraft * witful * witless * witling * witter * wittol * witticism

    See also

    (type of humor) * acid * biting * cutting * lambent

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) . Compare (m).

    Verb

    (head)
  • (ambitransitive, chiefly, archaic) Know, be aware of .
  • You committed terrible actions — to wit , murder and theft — and should be punished accordingly.
    They are meddling in matters that men should not wit of.
  • * 1849 , , St. Luke the Painter , lines 5–8
  • but soon having wist
    How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day
    Are symbols also in some deeper way,
    She looked through these to God and was God’s priest.
    Conjugation
    {, , - , valign="top" , {, class="prettytable" , - ! Infinitive , to wit , - ! Imperative , wit , - ! Present participle , witting , - ! Past participle , wist , } , valign="top" , {, class="prettytable" , - ! ! Present indicative ! Past indicative , - ! First-person singular , I wot , I wist , - ! Second-person singular , thou wost, wot(test) (archaic); you wot , thou wist(est) (archaic), you wist , - ! Third-person singular , he/she/it wot , he/she/it wist , - ! First-person plural , we wit(e) , we wist , - ! Second-person plural , ye wit(e) (archaic); you wit(e) , ye wist (archaic), you wist , - ! Third-person plural , they wit(e) , they wist , } , }
    Usage notes
    * As a preterite-present verb, the third-person singular indicative form is not .
    Derived terms
    * to wit * unwitting * witness

    Etymology 3

    From English with.

    Preposition

    (head)
  • (en-SoE)