# wisdom

Pronunciation: say "WIZ-duhm" /ˈwɪzdəm/

## Noun

1. The capacity to make sound judgments by drawing together experience, knowledge, and intuitive insight.
   - Simple: The good sense to choose well by combining what you know, what you have lived through, and your instincts.
   - _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._
2. The ability to apply relevant knowledge insightfully, especially in situations different from where the knowledge was first gained.
   - Simple: The skill of using what you know in clever ways, even in new situations you have never faced before.
   - _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._
3. A trait of personal character that lets a person tell the wise from the unwise.
   - Simple: A part of someone's character that helps them tell wise choices from foolish ones.
   - _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._
4. A single piece of wise advice, often passed on by someone with experience.
   - Simple: A helpful piece of advice that comes from a wise or experienced person.
   - _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._
5. The careful, well-judged use of knowledge to bring about the greatest good.
   - Simple: Using what you know carefully and at the right moment to do the most 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._
6. The ability to know spiritual truths and put them into practice.
   - Simple: The ability to understand spiritual truths and to live by them.
   - _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._
7. Ellipsis of wisdom tooth. Colloquial. *(colloquial)* — Ellipsis of wisdom tooth.
   - Simple: Short form of wisdom tooth, used in informal English.
   - _"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._

## Noun

8. A group of owls considered together as one. *(rare)*
   - Simple: Several owls treated as one group.
   - _At dusk a wisdom of owls emerged silently from the old cathedral tower._
   - _We spotted a wisdom of owls perched along the bare winter branches._
9. A group of wombats considered together as one. *(rare)*
   - Simple: Several wombats treated as one group.
   - _A wisdom of wombats grazed across the hillside long after sunset._
   - _The ranger counted an entire wisdom of wombats moving between the burrows._

## 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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/wisdom (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).