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Knowledge vs Wit - What's the difference?

knowledge | wit |

As nouns the difference between knowledge and wit

is that knowledge is acknowledgement while wit is sanity.

As verbs the difference between knowledge and wit

is that knowledge is to confess as true; to acknowledge while wit is know, be aware of construed with of when used intransitively.

As a proper noun Knowledge

is a course of study which must be completed by prospective London taxi drivers; consists of 320 routes through central London and many significant places.

As a preposition wit is

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

knowledge

Alternative forms

* (obsolete) knolege, knowlage, knowleche, knowledg, knowlege, knowliche, knowlych, knowlech * knaulege, knaulage, knawlage * knoleche, knoleige, knowlache, knolych * knawlache

Noun

(en-noun)
  • (obsolete) Acknowledgement.
  • The fact of knowing about something; general understanding or familiarity with a subject, place, situation etc.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The machine of a new soul , passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.}}
  • Awareness of a particular fact or situation; a state of having been informed or made aware of something.
  • * 1813 , (Jane Austen), (Pride and Prejudice) :
  • He had always intended to visit him, though to the last always assuring his wife that he should not go; and till the evening after the visit was paid she had no knowledge of it.
  • Intellectual understanding; the state of appreciating truth or information.
  • Familiarity or understanding of a particular skill, branch of learning etc.
  • * 1573 , George Gascoigne, "The Adventures of Master F.J.", An Anthology of Elizabethan Prose Fiction :
  • Every time that he had knowledge of her he would leave, either in the bed, or in her cushion-cloth, or by her looking-glass, or in some place where she must needs find it, a piece of money.
  • (obsolete) Information or intelligence about something; notice.
  • * 1580 , Edward Hayes, "Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland", Voyages and Travels Ancient and Modern , ed. Charles W Eliot, Cosimo 2005, p. 280:
  • Item, if any ship be in danger, every man to bear towards her, answering her with one light for a short time, and so to put it out again; thereby to give knowledge that they have seen her token.
  • The total of what is known; all information and products of learning.
  • (countable) Something that can be known; a branch of learning; a piece of information; a science.
  • *, II.12:
  • *:he weakened his braines much, as all men doe, who over nicely and greedily will search out those knowledges , which hang not for their mowing, nor pertaine unto them.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • There is a great difference in the delivery of the mathematics, which are the most abstracted of knowledges .
  • (obsolete) Notice, awareness.
  • * 1611 , The Bible, Authorized Version, Ruth II.10:
  • Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
  • (UK, informal) The deep familiarity with certain routes and places of interest required by taxicab drivers working in London, England.
  • * Malcolm Bobbitt, Taxi! - The Story of the London Cab
  • There is only one sure way to memorise the runs and that is to follow them, either on foot, cycle or motor cycle; hence, the familiar sight of would-be cabbies learning the knowledge during evenings and weekends.

    Quotations

    * 1996 , Jan Jindy Pettman, Worlding Women: A feminist international politics , pages ix-x: *: There are by now many feminisms (Tong, 1989; Humm, 1992)..

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often used with “knowledge”: extensive, deep, superficial, theoretical, practical, useful, working, encyclopedic, public, private, scientific, tacit, explicit, general, specialized, special, broad, declarative, procedural, innate, etc.

    Derived terms

    (terms derived from knowledge) * acknowledge * background knowledge * carnal knowledge * common knowledge * foreknowledge * general knowledge * interknowledge * knowledgeable or knowledgable * knowledge base * knowledge domain * knowledge engineer * knowledge is power * knowledge management * knowledge worker * metaknowledge * prior knowledge * protoknowledge * public knowledge * scientific knowledge * self-knowledge * sphere of knowledge * theory of knowledge * traditional knowledge * tree of knowledge * working knowledge * zero-knowledge proof

    Synonyms

    * awareness * cognizance * * knowingness * learning

    Antonyms

    * ignorance

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To confess as true; to acknowledge.
  • * 1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 3:
  • Then went oute to hym Jerusalem, and all Jury, and all the region rounde aboute Jordan, and were baptised of hym in Jordan, knoledging their synnes.

    See also

    * data * erudition * information * know-how * perception * wisdom

    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)