savvy
/ˈsæv.i/
savvy adjective: shrewd, well-informed and perceptive.
Adjective
savvy (comparative savvier, superlative savviest)
- Shrewd, well-informed and perceptive.
- That such a safe adaptation could come of The Hunger Games speaks more to the trilogy’s commercial ascent than the book’s actual content, which is audacious and savvy in its dark calculations.2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club, archived from the original on 24 Mar 2012
- Mellors explains that the current mix of customers on Avanti's trains is more skewed towards leisure customers who are price savvy. Typically, this means that the average yield from their tickets is lower.2026 August 19, Andy Mellors talks to Helen Nugent, “The RAIL Interview”, in RAIL, number 1068, page 28
- Synonyms:
- canny
Verb
savvy (third-person singular simple present savvies, present participle savvying, simple past and past participle savvied)
- To understand.
- He's probably a perfect technician as a surgeon, but he knows you get only what you grab. Think of the years it's taken me to learn what he savvied all the time!1925, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXIV, in Arrowsmith, Harcourt Brace & Co., page 280
Noun
savvy (uncountable)
- Shrewdness.
- Synonyms:
- savviness
savvy meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Arabic and Persian
savvy in Urdu
- خرد, قابلیت, سمجھ
savvy in Malayalam
- acumen, shrewdness, astuteness
- ചാതുര്യം, ധീഗുണങ്ങൾ, സൂക്ഷ്മബുദ്ധി, ബുദ്ധികൂർമ്മ, മനോവേഗം, മനോജവം
- shrewd, sharp-witted, astute
- ചതുരനായ, കുശാഗ്രബുദ്ധിയായ, തന്ത്രമുള്ള, കൗശലമുള്ള, സൂക്ഷ്മഗ്രാഹിയായ, കൂർമ്മബുദ്ധിയുള്ള
savvy in Arabic
- well-informed and perceptive
- الدهاء aldaha'
savvy in Persian
- well-informed and perceptive
- زرنگ zerang
- (informal) to understand
- گرفتن gereftan
Examples of savvy in a sentence
- Even savvy Internet users have fallen victim to the ubiquitous Nigerian scam.
- Special shout out to Dora for your fiscal savvy and resort points.
- By using markdown, you can get other non-tech savvy contributors to easily write posts for your blog.
Synonyms of savvy
Forms of savvy
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | savvier |
| superlative | savviest |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | savvies |
| present participle | savvying |
| past participle | savvied |
| past | savvied |
Origin of savvy
Alteration of save, sabi (“to know”) (in English-based creoles and pidgins), from Portuguese sabe (“[she/he] knows”), from saber (“to know”), from Latin sapere (“to taste; to know”). First appears c. 1785 in a dictionary by Francis Grose, as a noun, “practical sense, intelligence”; also a verb, “to know, to understand”. The adjective is first recorded 1905, from the noun.
Words formed from savvy
Words that rhyme with savvy
Questions about savvy
- What does savvy mean?
- Savvy means shrewd, well-informed and perceptive.
- What is savvy in Urdu?
- Savvy in Urdu is خرد, قابلیت, سمجھ. See Savvy meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is savvy?
- Savvy can be an adjective, a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce savvy?
- Savvy is pronounced /ˈsæv.i/ (UK).
Words near savvy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: savvy (page history and authors); savvy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); savvy (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-savvy.wav.
Cite this entry: “savvy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/savvy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.