wiseacre
/ˈwaɪzeɪkə(ɹ)/
wiseacre noun: one who feigns knowledge or cleverness; one who is wisecracking; an insolent upstart.
Noun
wiseacre (plural wiseacres)
- One who feigns knowledge or cleverness; one who is wisecracking; an insolent upstart.
- That other class of wiseacres who twist prophecy in such a manner as to make it promise the destruction and desolation of the same city, use judgement just as bad, since the city is in a very flourishing condition now, unhappily for them.1869, Mark Twain, the Innocents Abroad, Random House, published 2003, pages 298–299
- But noooooo! Some wiseacre “expert” will patronizingly explain that because gymnast Kim Zmeskal’s left little toenail was off center by the length of an eyelash, the judges will be forced to dock a tenth of a point from her score.1992 August 5, Daniel Ruth, “Failing to nail dismount won’t ruin your life”, in The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Fla., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2-BayLife, column 1
- Synonyms:
- Buddha, clever clogs, clever dick, know-all, know-it-all, smart aleck, smart ass, smarty, smarty pants, wiseass
- A learned or wise man.
- A fool's paradise is better than a wiseacre's purgatory.1776, George Colman, The Deuce is in him. A farce of two acts, page 24
- Peter Gower, a Grecian, journied for cunning in Egypt, and in Syria, and in every land where the Venetians had planted Masonry; and winning entrance into all lodges of Masons, he learned much, and returned and dwelt in Grecia Magna; watching and becoming a mighty wiseacre, and greatly renowned, and...1828, Henry Dana Ward, Free Masonry, page 46
Verb
wiseacre (third-person singular simple present wiseacres, present participle wiseacring, simple past and past participle wiseacred)
wiseacre meaning in Hindi, Urdu and Arabic
wiseacre in Hindi
- a wiseacre, a know-it-all
- लाल-बुझक्कड़ lāl-bujhakkaṛ
wiseacre in Urdu
- لال بجھکڑ
wiseacre in Arabic
- one who feigns knowledge or cleverness
- مُتَعَالِم mutaʕālim, مُتَحَذْلِق mutaḥaḏliq, مُتَحَذِّق mutaḥaḏḏiq
Synonyms of wiseacre
- Buddha
- clever clogs
- clever dick
- know-all
- know-it-all
- smart aleck
- smart ass
- smarty
- smarty pants
- wiseass
2 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of wiseacre
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | wiseacres |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | wiseacres |
| present participle | wiseacring |
| past participle | wiseacred |
| past | wiseacred |
Origin of wiseacre
From Middle Dutch wijssegger (“soothsayer”), from Old High German wīzzago, wīzago (“wise man, prophet, soothsayer”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītagō (“wise one; prophet”). Cognate with Old English wītga (“wise man, prophet”). See also German Weissager (“soothsayer, seer”).
Questions about wiseacre
- What does wiseacre mean?
- Wiseacre means one who feigns knowledge or cleverness; one who is wisecracking; an insolent upstart.
- What is wiseacre in Hindi?
- Wiseacre in Hindi is लाल-बुझक्कड़ (lāl-bujhakkaṛ). See Wiseacre meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is wiseacre?
- Wiseacre can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce wiseacre?
- Wiseacre is pronounced /ˈwaɪzeɪkə(ɹ)/.
- What is the plural of wiseacre?
- The plural of wiseacre is wiseacres.
Words near wiseacre in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wiseacre (page history and authors); लाल-बुझक्कड़ (Hindi) (page history and authors); wiseacre (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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-wiseacre.wav.
Cite this entry: “wiseacre.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wiseacre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.