Jump To:

• sage
  sage

  noun

  a profoundly wise person; a person famed for wisdom.
• Sage
  Sage

  noun

  Russell, 1816–1906, U.S. financier.

sage

¹ American  

[seyj] / seɪdʒ /

noun

1. a profoundly wise person; a person famed for wisdom.

   Synonyms:

   philosopher

   Antonyms:

   fool

2. someone venerated for the possession of wisdom, judgment, and experience.

---

adjective

sager, sagest

1. wise, judicious, or prudent.

   sage advice.

   Synonyms:

   sagacious

sage ² American  

[seyj] / seɪdʒ /

noun

1. any plant or shrub belonging to the genus Salvia, of the mint family.

2. an herb, Salvia officinalis, whose grayish-green leaves are used medicinally and in cooking.

3. the leaves of the medicinal and culinary herb Salvia officinalis.

4. sagebrush.

---

Sage ³ American  

[seyj] / seɪdʒ /

noun

1. Russell, 1816–1906, U.S. financier.

---

sage ¹ British  

/ seɪdʒ /

noun

1. a man revered for his profound wisdom

---

adjective

1. profoundly wise or prudent

2. obsolete solemn

sage ² British  

/ seɪdʒ /

noun

1. a perennial Mediterranean plant, Salvia officinalis, having grey-green leaves and purple, blue, or white flowers: family Lamiaceae (labiates)

2. the leaves of this plant, used in cooking for flavouring

3. short for sagebrush

---

Other Word Forms

• sageness
  noun
• sagely
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of sage¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin sapius (unattested), from Latin sap(ere) “to taste, have taste, smell, smell of; to have sense, discern, know, be wise” + -idus; see origin at sapient, -id ⁴

Origin of sage²

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English sa ( u ) ge, from Middle French sau ( l ) ge, from Latin salvia, derivative of salvus safe (so named from its supposed healing powers)

Explanation

Use the word sage for someone or something wise and judicious. Thanks to the sage advice of your friend, you didn't write your teacher an angry e-mail! Although you might think of a wizard when you hear the word sage, really it means a wise man. Today you see it used to refer to someone who has insight in a particular field. If someone is a policy sage, he knows just what advice to give politicians to make them understand the issue and respond successfully to it. In a totally unrelated use, there is also a plant called sage that is useful in home remedies and cooking.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sage Sage sager sagest

The colorful aesthetic follows into the kitchen, which is adorned with sage green cabinetry, a wooden island, and state-of-the-art appliances.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

Andy Serkis’s General Braddock is a blustering fool who refuses to take Washington’s sage advice seriously until it’s too late; as Mary, George’s mother, Mary-Louise Parker is a suffering saint.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

Lee reaches to sniff some hardy Cleveland sage 4.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026

Upon entering the home, guests are greeted with an expansive living area that features wooden beams on the ceiling, French doors that open up to the balcony, a cozy fireplace, and a sage green bar.

From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026

Her mother would clean off the headstones with an old cloth and burn sage in a shallow pewter dish.

From "Ash" by Malinda Lo

Crystal Palace manager Pierre Sage hopes both Sarr and his team-mate Jean-Philippe Mateta remain at the club.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

The precious metal is likely to continue reacting to changing monetary policy expectations, says Critical Metals’ Tony Sage in an email.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

In his place comes the highly regarded Pierre Sage, whose performance at Lens - where he became Ligue 1's manager of the year - was good enough to attract attention from Liverpool.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

Mining executive Tony Sage faced an unusual problem on a call with investors: One investor accused Sage of not knowing where his company’s deposit of rare minerals was located.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

He stayed up most nights reading, copying interesting scriptures or writing his theories down in a book very similar to the one carried by Benton Sage.

From "Where Things Come Back" by John Corey Whaley

Fox News’ Jessica sager contributed to this report.

From Fox News ● Aug. 28, 2019

How about the remark of reputedly sager and more worldly-wise of the founding fathers: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

From Time Magazine Archive

The same day, his wife decided she should leave him for a slimmer, sager man.

From Time Magazine Archive

Most Britons, as Lord Byron once put it, "till by losing rendered sager, will back their own opinions by a wager."

From Time Magazine Archive

After Catullus My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love, And though the sager sort our deeds reprove, Let us not weigh them.

From The Home Book of Verse — Volume 2 by Burton Egbert Stevenson

But joining the Little Red Book author in a shrine to the all-time sagest minds in golf would be his English counterpart, John Jacobs.

From Golf Digest ● Oct. 16, 2013

Scapegoat elected for Mussolini's Albanian fiasco was white-haired, crinkle-eyed Marshal Pietro Badoglio, Chief of the General Staff, universally recognized as Italy's sagest soldier.

From Time Magazine Archive

Petrolle is one of the ring's sagest fighters.

From Time Magazine Archive

"By 1997 some filmmakers will have been absorbed into Hollywood," says Norman Wang, a New York-based film publicist and one of the Hong Kong industry's sagest insiders.

From Time Magazine Archive

“The impressions he made upon me suggested he was not of the sagest, nor of the most excellent of men.”

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson