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SAGACITY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The trait of forming opinions by distinguishing and evaluating
Synonyms:
judiciousness; sagaciousness; sagacity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("sagacity" is a kind of...):
wisdom; wiseness (the trait of utilizing knowledge and experience with common sense and insight)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The mental ability to understand and discriminate between relations
Synonyms:
discernment; judgement; judgment; sagaciousness; sagacity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("sagacity" is a kind of...):
sapience; wisdom (ability to apply knowledge or experience or understanding or common sense and insight)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sagacity"):
eye (good discernment (either visually or as if visually))
common sense; good sense; gumption; horse sense; mother wit; sense (sound practical judgment)
judiciousness (good judgment)
circumspection; discreetness; discretion; prudence (knowing how to avoid embarrassment or distress)
indiscreetness; injudiciousness (lacking good judgment)
Derivation:
sagacious (skillful in statecraft or management)
Context examples:
I had sagacity enough to discover that the unnatural hideousness of my person was the chief object of horror with those who had formerly beheld me.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Its sagacity is wonderful.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I leave it to my reader's sagacity to determine how much of all this it was possible for Henry to communicate at this time to Catherine, how much of it he could have learnt from his father, in what points his own conjectures might assist him, and what portion must yet remain to be told in a letter from James.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The selfish sagacity of the latter, which had at first drawn Robert into the scrape, was the principal instrument of his deliverance from it; for her respectful humility, assiduous attentions, and endless flatteries, as soon as the smallest opening was given for their exercise, reconciled Mrs. Ferrars to his choice, and re-established him completely in her favour.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
I one day took the freedom to tell his majesty, that the contempt he discovered towards Europe, and the rest of the world, did not seem answerable to those excellent qualities of mind that he was master of; that reason did not extend itself with the bulk of the body; on the contrary, we observed in our country, that the tallest persons were usually the least provided with it; that among other animals, bees and ants had the reputation of more industry, art, and sagacity, than many of the larger kinds; and that, as inconsiderable as he took me to be, I hoped I might live to do his majesty some signal service.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The friendship between himself and me increased continually, and it was maintained on this odd footing: that, while Mr. Dick came professedly to look after me as my guardian, he always consulted me in any little matter of doubt that arose, and invariably guided himself by my advice; not only having a high respect for my native sagacity, but considering that I inherited a good deal from my aunt.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I durst make no return to this malicious insinuation, which debased human understanding below the sagacity of a common hound, who has judgment enough to distinguish and follow the cry of the ablest dog in the pack, without being ever mistaken.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I cannot help thinking, said Mrs. Micawber, with an air of deep sagacity, that there are members of my family who have been apprehensive that Mr. Micawber would solicit them for their names.—I do not mean to be conferred in Baptism upon our children, but to be inscribed on Bills of Exchange, and negotiated in the Money Market.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
One great excellency in this tribe, is their skill at prognostics, wherein they seldom fail; their predictions in real diseases, when they rise to any degree of malignity, generally portending death, which is always in their power, when recovery is not: and therefore, upon any unexpected signs of amendment, after they have pronounced their sentence, rather than be accused as false prophets, they know how to approve their sagacity to the world, by a seasonable dose.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
