Word Meanings - WISDOM - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. The quality of being wise; knowledge, and the capacity to make due use of it; knowledge of the best ends and the best means; discernment and judgment; discretion; sagacity; skill; dexterity. We speak also not in wise words of man's wisdom, but

Additional info about word: WISDOM

1. The quality of being wise; knowledge, and the capacity to make due use of it; knowledge of the best ends and the best means; discernment and judgment; discretion; sagacity; skill; dexterity. We speak also not in wise words of man's wisdom, but in the doctrine of the spirit. Wyclif . Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. Job xxviii. 28. It is hoped that our rulers will act with dignity and wisdom that they will yield everything to reason, and refuse everything to force. Ames. Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. Coleridge. 2. The results of wise judgments; scientific or practical truth; acquired knowledge; erudition. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. Acts vii. 22. Syn. -- Prudence; knowledge. Wisdom, Prudence, Knowledge. Wisdom has been defined to be "the use of the best means for attaining the best ends." "We conceive," says Whewell, " prudence as the virtue by which we select right means for given ends, while wisdom implies the selection of right ends as well as of right means." Hence, wisdom implies the union of high mental and moral excellence. Prudence (that is, providence, or forecast) is of a more negative character; it rather consists in avoiding danger than in taking decisive measures for the accomplishment of an object. Sir Robert Walpole was in many respects a prudent statesman, but he was far from being a wise one. Burke has said that prudence, when carried too far, degenerates into a "reptile virtue," which is the more dangerous for its plausible appearance. Knowledge, a more comprehensive term, signifies the simple apprehension of facts or relations. "In strictness of language," says Paley, " there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom; wisdom always supposing action, and action directed by it." Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men; Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own. Knowledge, a rude, unprofitable mass, The mere materials with which wisdom builds, Till smoothed, and squared, and fitted to its place, Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. Cowper. Wisdom tooth, the last, or back, tooth of the full set on each half of each jaw in man; -- familiarly so called, because appearing comparatively late, after the person may be supposed to have arrived at the age of wisdom. See the Note under Tooth, 1.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of WISDOM)

• Sanity
• Rationality
• soundness
• reasonableness
• lucidity
• wisdom
• Sense
• Perception
• sensation
• feeling
• apprehension
• recognition
• understanding
• discernment
• appreciation
• sentiment
• view
• opinion
• judgment
• reason
• consciousness
• notion
• meaning
• import
• signification
• purport
• significance
• sagacity

Related words: (words related to WISDOM)

• JUDGMENT
  The final award; the last sentence. Note: Judgment, abridgment, acknowledgment, and lodgment are in England sometimes written, judgement, abridgement, acknowledgement, and lodgement. Note: Judgment is used adjectively in many self-explaining
• SANITY
  The condition or quality of being sane; soundness of health of body or mind, especially of the mind; saneness.
• OPINIONATOR
  An opinionated person; one given to conjecture. South.
• SENSE
  A faculty, possessed by animals, of perceiving external objects by means of impressions made upon certain organs (sensory or sense organs) of the body, or of perceiving changes in the condition of the body; as, the senses of sight, smell, hearing,
• PURPORTLESS
  Without purport or meaning.
• REASONING
  1. The act or process of adducing a reason or reasons; manner of presenting one's reasons. 2. That which is offered in argument; proofs or reasons when arranged and developed; course of argument. His reasoning was sufficiently profound. Macaulay.
• IMPORTUNELY
  In an importune manner.
• APPREHENSION
  1. The act of seizing or taking hold of; seizure; as, the hand is an organ of apprehension. Sir T. Browne. 2. The act of seizing or taking by legal process; arrest; as, the felon, after his apprehension, escaped. 3. The act of grasping with the
• REASONLESS
  1. Destitute of reason; as, a reasonless man or mind. Shak. 2. Void of reason; not warranted or supported by reason; unreasonable. This proffer is absurd and reasonless. Shak.
• FEELINGLY
  In a feeling manner; pathetically; sympathetically.
• SENSATION
  An impression, or the consciousness of an impression, made upon the central nervous organ, through the medium of a sensory or afferent nerve or one of the organs of sense; a feeling, or state of consciousness, whether agreeable or disagreeable,
• UNDERSTANDINGLY
  In an understanding manner; intelligibly; with full knowledge or comprehension; intelligently; as, to vote upon a question understandingly; to act or judge understandingly. The gospel may be neglected, but in can not be understandingly disbelieved.
• SENTIMENTALLY
  In a sentimental manner.
• IMPORTUNATOR
  One who importunes; an importuner. Sir E. Sandys.
• REASONABLY
  1. In a reasonable manner. 2. Moderately; tolerably. "Reasonably perfect in the language." Holder.
• PERCEPTION
  The faculty of perceiving; the faculty, or peculiar part, of man's constitution by which he has knowledge through the medium or instrumentality of the bodily organs; the act of apperhending material objects or qualities through the senses;
• WISDOM LITERATURE
  The class of ancient Hebrew writings which deal reflectively with general ethical and religious topics, as distinguished from the prophetic and liturgical literature, and from the law. It is comprised chiefly in the books of Job, Proverbs,
• SENTIMENT
  fr. L. sentire to perceive by the senses and mind, to feel, to think. 1. A thought prompted by passion or feeling; a state of mind in view of some subject; feeling toward or respecting some person or thing; disposition prompting to action
• IMPORTING
  Full of meaning. Shak.
• IMPORTUNE
  derivative from the root of portus harbor, importunus therefore orig. 1. Inopportune; unseasonable. 2. Troublesome; vexatious; persistent; urgent; hence, vexatious on account of untimely urgency or perinacious solicitation. And their importune
• MISDEMEAN
  To behave ill; -- with a reflexive pronoun; as, to misdemean one's self.
• DEMEANURE
  Behavior. Spenser.
• INSENSE
  To make to understand; to instruct. Halliwell.
• REMEANT
  Coming back; returning. "Like the remeant sun." C. Kingsley.
• ARAMAEAN; ARAMEAN
  Of or pertaining to the Syrians and Chaldeans, or to their language; Aramaic. -- n.
• PREAPPREHENSION
  An apprehension or opinion formed before examination or knowledge. Sir T. Browne.
• UNWISDOM
  Want of wisdom; unwise conduct or action; folly; simplicity; ignorance. Sumptuary laws are among the exploded fallacies which we have outgrown, and we smile at the unwisdom which could except to regulate private habits and manners by statute. J.