wisdom

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (3)  · 
“
A man noted for his wisdom is also said to be "wise as Tyr."

View all »
Definitions (22)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight.
  2. noun Common sense; good judgment: "It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things” (Henry David Thoreau).
  3. noun The sum of learning through the ages; knowledge: "In those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations” (Maya Angelou).
3 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (10)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • Again the governor knelt, for part of his wisdom was the knowledge that a woman in such an emotional tempest is as perilous as a blind cobra to any about her. —  Conan -- The Stories from Weird Tales (1932-1936)
  • The first test of his wisdom was the deciding of the controversy between the two women about one of their children. —  Wrong Planet Asperger / Autism Forums
  • Your wisdom is always appreciated, even though I try at times to fit what you say into my culture. —  Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines
  • But, in keeping with my conviction that at any event like this, the wisdom is already in the room, I asked these front-line leaders to share their own tips for other managers. —  Poynter Online
  • I hate how utterly theoretical and non-practical this wisdom is and ... —  Seth's Blog
More examples »
 

Tags

wisdom hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 231 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

knowledge ·  courage ·  virtue ·  genius ·  judgment ·  strength ·  happiness ·  faith ·  goodness ·  insight
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English wīsdōm; see weid- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English wisdom, wysdom, wisedom, from Anglo-Saxon wīsdōm, wisdom (= Old Saxon wīsdōm = OFries. wīsdōm = Middle Dutch wijsdom = Old High German Middle High German wīstuom, wisdom, knowledge, judgment, German weissthum, knowledge, = Icelandic vīsdōmr = Swedish Danish visdom, wisdom), from wīs, wise, + dōm, condition: see wise and- dom.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈwɪzdəm/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word a few times a week.

Recently looked up

potsherd · anticipate · circumcision · answer · annually

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich