Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having or showing keen discernment, sound judgment, and farsightedness. synonym: shrewd.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Keenly perceptive; discerning, as by some exceptionally developed or extraordinary natural power; especially, keen of scent: with of.
  • Exhibiting or marked by keen intellectual discernment, especially of human motives and actions; having or proceeding from penetration into practical affairs in general; having keen practical sense; acute in discernment or penetration; discerning and judicious; shrewd: as, a sagacious mind.
  • Intelligent; endowed with sagacity.
  • Synonyms and Sage, Knowing, etc. (see astute); perspicacious, clear-sighted, long-headed, sharp-witted, intelligent, well-judged, sensible.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of quick sense perceptions; keen-scented; skilled in following a trail.
  • adjective Hence, of quick intellectual perceptions; of keen penetration and judgment; discerning and judicious; knowing; far-sighted; shrewd; sage; wise.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having or showing keen discernment, sound judgment, and farsightedness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective skillful in statecraft or management
  • adjective acutely insightful and wise

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin sagāx, sagāc-, of keen perception; see sāg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined between 1600 and 1610 from sagacity +‎ -ous

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word sagacious.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • sagacious : perspicacious

    August 29, 2007

  • Here's a fun little anecdote I found on MyFavoriteWord.com, by Sheila Confer:

    "I was an outstanding speller in my youth. In seventh grade I won the school wide spelling test and got to go all the way to Pittsburgh, PA for a regional final. Out of 700 (probably more like 30) children, I survived until the final three. My word? Sagacious: Having or showing keen discernment, sound judgment, and farsightedness. I spelled it "s-E-g-a-c-i-o-u-s."

    It is my favorite word for two reasons. One, I will never forget how to spell it, and two, the winner of the contest had to spell tulle: A fine, often starched net of silk, rayon, or nylon, used especially for veils, tutus, or gowns. I would have surely spelled it t-o-o-l and been embarrassed for life. It was therefore very sagacious of me to misspell sagacious...right?"

    September 30, 2007

  • Nice wordie but your mishap was not sagacious but innocuous. Could you have spelled that? :)

    December 23, 2008

  • "The sagacious reader will not from this simile imagine these poor people had any apprehension of the design with which Mrs. Wilkins was now coming towards them; but as the great beauty of the simile may possibly sleep these hundred years, till some future commentator shall take this work in hand, I think proper to lend the reader a little assistance in this place."

    - Henry Fielding, 'The History of Tom Jones'.

    September 8, 2009

  • Relates to the noun sage.

    July 24, 2015