wisdom
Syllables: wis·domUK/ˈwɪzdəm/
wisdom noun: an element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise. Also the ellipsis of wisdom tooth.
Noun
wisdom (countable and uncountable, plural wisdoms)
- An element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise.
- A piece of wise advice.
- The discretionary use of knowledge for the greatest good.
- The ability to apply relevant knowledge in an insightful way, especially to different situations from that in which the knowledge was gained.
- The ability to make a decision based on the combination of knowledge, experience, and intuitive understanding.
- The ability to know and apply spiritual truths.
- Wiſdom…is to a man an infinite Treaſure, for ſhe is the Breath of the Power of God, and a pure Influence that floweth from the Glory of the Almighty; ſhe is the Brightneſs of Eternal Light, and an undefiled Mirror of the Majeſty of God, and an Image of his Goodneſs; ſhe teacheth us Soberneſs and...1652, Eugenius Philalethes, The Fame and Confeſſion of the Fraternity of…the Roſie Croſs, pages 1-2 of the preface
- A group of wombats.
- 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 April 16, Tony Cooper, “Ebay is Unfair!”, in rec.collecting.coins (Usenet), retrieved 05 Sep 2022
- Beautimus strolled to the river for her morning bath. She looked one direction, then the other to search the landscape for anything or anybody who might offer a clue as to what could be coming her way. She passed a pond where a congregation of alligators and a wisdom of wombats engaged in a heated...2017, Peggy A. Wheeler, The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus
- A group of owls.
- What he expected to find I cannot imagine , unless it was a wisdom of owls. What he did see and hear were telephones ringing, assistants answering them, getting up from their seats to take a book or a card from a file, returning[…]1974, Margery Weiner, Answering Any Questions: How to Set Up an Information Office, Newton Abbot : David and Charles [for] the "Daily Telegraph"
- 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 Novel, →ISBN, page 91
- Synonyms:
- parliament
Proper noun capitalized: Wisdom
Wisdom
- The Wisdom of Solomon, a book of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canon of the Old Testament, considered apocryphal by Protestants.
Also used as
wisdom is also the ellipsis of wisdom tooth.
wisdom meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
wisdom in Hindi
- element of personal character
- बुद्धिमत्ता buddhimattā, पांडित्य pāṇḍitya, प्रज्ञा prajñā
wisdom in Tamil
- ஞானம், புத்திசாலித்தனம்
wisdom in Marathi
- शहाणपण, शहाणपणा
wisdom in Urdu
- element of personal character
- عقل
More languagesFewer languages
- wisdom in Bengali
- প্রজ্ঞা
- wisdom in Telugu
- వివేకం
- wisdom in Malayalam
- ജ്ഞാനം, വിവേകം
- wisdom in Kannada
- ಬುದ್ಧಿವಂತಿಕೆ, ಬುದ್ಧಿವಂತಿಕೆಯು, ವಿವೇಕ
- wisdom in Punjabi
- ਸਿਆਣਪ
- wisdom in Gujarati
- ડહાપણ, શાણપણ
- wisdom in Sanskrit
- प्रज्ञा prajñā
- wisdom in Nepali
- बुद्धि
- wisdom in Tagalog
- karunungan
- wisdom in Arabic
- حِكْمَة ḥikma
- wisdom in Malay
- kebijaksanaan
- wisdom in Indonesian
- kebijaksanaan
- wisdom in Persian
- خردمندی xeradmandi, خرد xerad, حکمت hekmat
- wisdom in Thai
- ภูมิปัญญา puum-bpan-yaa
- wisdom in Vietnamese
- khôn ngoan, trí tuệ, trí huệ
- wisdom in Myanmar
- ဉာဏ် nyan, ဉာဏ nyana., ဝိဇ္ဇာ wijja
- Kashmiri
- گاٹہٕ جار gāṭhụ jār, بۄد bọd
Examples of wisdom in a sentence
- She passed a pond where a congregation of alligators and a wisdom of wombats engaged in a heated argument over economics.2017, Peggy A. Wheeler, The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus:
- Yes, the water has returned, along with giant earth-eating creatures boring holes far below, linking wisdoms of wombats with wastelands of Winthers.2020, Graham Jackson, The7th Victim, page 160:
Synonyms of wisdom
- parliament
- acuity
- astuteness
- clairvoyance
- discernment
- discrimination
- gumption
- insight
- nous
- penetration
13 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of wisdom
| plural | wisdoms |
|---|---|
| alternative form | wisdome |
| alternative form (obsolete) | wisedome |
Origin of wisdom
From Middle English wisdom, from Old English wīsdōm (“wisdom”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīsadōm, from Proto-Germanic *wīsadōmaz (“wisdom”), corresponding to wise + -dom. Cognate with Scots wisdom, wysdom (“wisdom”), West Frisian wiisdom (“wisdom”), Dutch wijsdom (“wisdom”), German Weistum (“legal sentence”), Danish/Norwegian/Swedish visdom (“wisdom”), Icelandic vísdómur (“wisdom”).
Words formed from wisdom
- antiwisdom
- conventional wisdom
- font of all wisdom
- fount of all wisdom
- in one's infinite wisdom
- lip wisdom
- omniwisdom
- pearl of wisdom
- penny wisdom
- received wisdom
- salt of wisdom
- Seat of Wisdom
- streetwisdom
- street wisdom
- Throne of Wisdom
- wisdomful
- wisdomless
- wisdom of Silenus
- wisdom of Solomon
- wisdom of the crow
- wisdomship
- wisdom tooth
- wisdomwise
- wisdumb
- witkey
- worldwisdom
Phrases with wisdom
Words that rhyme with wisdom
Questions about wisdom
- What does wisdom mean?
- Wisdom means an element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise.
- What is wisdom in Hindi?
- Wisdom in Hindi is बुद्धिमत्ता (buddhimattā), पांडित्य (pāṇḍitya), प्रज्ञा (prajñā). See Wisdom meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use wisdom in a sentence?
- She passed a pond where a congregation of alligators and a wisdom of wombats engaged in a heated argument over economics.
- What part of speech is wisdom?
- Wisdom can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce wisdom?
- Wisdom is pronounced /ˈwɪzdəm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of wisdom?
- The plural of wisdom is wisdoms.
Words near wisdom in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wisdom (page history and authors); Wisdom (page history and authors); wisdom (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wisdom (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wisdom (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wisdom (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wisdom (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wisdom (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wisdom (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wisdom (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wisdom (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-wisdom.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wisdom.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wisdom. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.