What does wight mean?
Wight is an uncommon English noun that denotes a person, usually with the implication that the person is unfortunate, insignificant, or deserving of sympathy; the familiar expression “poor wight” illustrates this use. In older and literary language, the word can be broader, meaning any living being or creature rather than specifically a human. Its present-day appearance is therefore often deliberately archaic, producing a tone that may be sympathetic, dismissive, playful, or fantastical according to context. Wight should not be confused with white, and it is pronounced like that word. The word also survives in the nearly extinct adjective wight, meaning “strong” or “valiant,” though this form is encountered chiefly in archaic writing. For a general reader, the principal significance of wight is that it preserves a compact older vocabulary for human beings and creatures. Its modern literary and speculative uses can evoke an earlier, more consciously stylized register, making it useful when an author wants to sound traditional, eerie, or deliberately old-fashioned.
A person, especially one regarded as unfortunate, insignificant, or pitiable; in older usage, any living being or creature.
"The old traveler took pity on the weary wight."
Chiefly archaic or literary, though it may be used deliberately for an eerie or fantastical effect.
Archaic: strong, vigorous, or valiant.
"A wight champion stood before the gate."
The plural is wights, though it is uncommon because the singular noun is now chiefly archaic or literary.
"The storyteller gathered the wights around the fire."
Wight looks and sounds like “white,” but it is an old-fashioned word for a person—or any living creature.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does wight come from?
The noun descends from Old English wiht, meaning “creature” or “thing,” through Middle English wight. It is generally traced to Proto-Germanic *wihtą, whose relatives include Dutch wicht and German Wicht, both associated with a creature or small being. The older sense “strong, vigorous” survives only archaically and in the derived form wighty.
Related word forms
How wight is actually used
The noun is chiefly archaic or literary and often carries sympathetic, dismissive, or faintly contemptuous overtones. The adjective is obsolete and uncommon even in deliberately archaic writing.
Easily confused with wight
White is the everyday color term, while wight is an archaic noun for a person or creature, although the two are pronounced alike.
A wright is a maker or repairer, especially of ships; wight is an archaic word for a person or creature and is a homophone of wright.