wisdom
Pluralwisdoms
- 1The capacity to make sound judgments by drawing together experience, knowledge, and intuitive insight.
The committee relied on her wisdom to settle a dispute no rulebook covered.
It takes wisdom, not just intelligence, to weigh competing risks under pressure.
Similarjudgment, discernment, sagacity, acumen, insight
Oppositefolly
- 2The ability to apply relevant knowledge insightfully, especially in situations different from where the knowledge was first gained.
Her wisdom let her transfer the lessons of one crisis to an entirely unrelated one.
Engineering students learn facts quickly, but wisdom shows in how they reuse them elsewhere.
Similarinsight, acumen, discernment
- 3A trait of personal character that lets a person tell the wise from the unwise.
His wisdom set him apart from colleagues who were clever but reckless.
We turned to her for wisdom because she rarely confused noise with insight.
Similarjudgment, sense, discernment, prudence, sagacity
Oppositefolly, foolishness, imprudence
Note
The word is built from wise plus the suffix -dom, the same ending that turns king into kingdom and free into freedom. Old English wīsdōm already named the condition of being wise. That is why this sense is uncountable: it names a quality, not an item you can count. When you need a single item, you move to a piece of wise advice.
- 4A single piece of wise advice, often passed on by someone with experience.
He offered one wisdom before I left: never sign anything you haven't read twice.
Her speech was stitched together from the wisdoms her mentors had given her.
Similarprecept, maxim, lesson, adage, saying
Note
The countable use explains why a plural, wisdoms, exists at all. Here the word stops naming a quality and names one item of counsel, so it can take a, one or a number: one wisdom, the wisdoms her mentors gave her. If the bare countable form feels stiff in a sentence, a piece of wisdom carries the same meaning.
- 5The careful, well-judged use of knowledge to bring about the greatest good.
Governing with wisdom, she released information slowly enough to avoid needless panic.
Wisdom told the surgeon when to operate and, just as often, when to wait.
Similarprudence, judgment, discretion, sense
Oppositefolly, imprudence, recklessness
- 6The ability to know spiritual truths and put them into practice.
The elder spoke with a wisdom drawn from decades of devotion and prayer.
Many traditions teach that true wisdom begins with humility before the divine.
Similarenlightenment, insight, understanding
Oppositeignorance
Note
Theological writing can give this wisdom a gender and a voice. Eugenius Philalethes, in The Fame and Confession of the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross (1652), calls wisdom "she", "the Breath of the Power of God" and "an undefiled Mirror of the Majesty of God". In this register wisdom is received from the divine rather than built up from experience. That sets it apart from the practical, decision-making sense.
- 7Ellipsis of wisdom tooth. Colloquial.
"My last wisdom finally came in, and it hurts like crazy," he groaned.
I'm getting a wisdom pulled on Friday, so I'll be eating soup all weekend.
Note
Casual talk clips wisdom tooth to its first word. The clipped form keeps the countable grammar of the full compound: a lower wisdom, my wisdoms. Harry Gilleland's Poetry for the Common Man (2003) uses the plural for teeth being taken out. Its plural looks identical to that of the advice sense, so context, usually extraction, tells them apart. It is colloquial; in careful writing, use wisdom tooth.
Less common meanings
- 8A group of owls considered together as one.
Comparable to a 'murder' of crows: English keeps quirky names for animal groups.
At dusk a wisdom of owls emerged silently from the old cathedral tower.
All of us, whether we gather into a wisp of snipes, a wisdom of owls, a wing of plovers, or remain like a single regretful priest on his knees before his God, we are one and it is not for us to decide another's fate.
2016, Gary Barwin, Yiddish for Pirates: A NovelSimilarparliament
Note
The owl version of the wombat collective, and just as rare. Gary Barwin's Yiddish for Pirates (2016) places it in a run of such phrases: a wisp of snipes, a wisdom of owls, a wing of plovers. That is the kind of list it thrives in. Parliament does the same job for owls, so a writer can choose between the two.
- 9A group of wombats considered together as one.
Like a 'mob' of kangaroos: Australian wildlife collects its own group names.
A wisdom of wombats grazed across the hillside long after sunset.
It would also be difficult to get to the bottom line accurately if a wisdom of wombats ate your working papers. Both scenarios are equal in probability.
2007, Tony Cooper, “Ebay is Unfair!”Note
One of English's fanciful collective nouns, built on the pattern a wisdom of + plural noun. It is rare and usually playful. Tony Cooper, posting to a coin-collecting newsgroup in 2007, imagines a wisdom of wombats eating his working papers. Use it for charm or comic effect, not in a field report. Readers are more likely to enjoy the alliteration than to recognize the term.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English wisdom, from Old English wīsdōm, going back to Proto-Germanic *wīsadōmaz; it corresponds to wise plus the suffix -dom, and is related to Dutch wijsdom and Swedish visdom.