sapience
Americannoun
-
great wisdom or sound judgment.
He did much to inculcate the image of a good prince, demonstrating his sapience at Oxford and doing justice with rigor and compassion.
-
the capacity to be self-aware.
Language existed long before there was writing, emerging most likely at the same time as sapience, abstract thought, and the genus Homo.
Etymology
Origin of sapience
First recorded in 1350–1400; from Old French, from Latin sapientia “wisdom,” from sapient-, stem of sapiēns + -ia -ia ( def. ); see sapient ( def. )
Explanation
Sapience is the quality of being wise, or wisdom. When voters are choosing a candidate, they usually hope for one with at least a degree of sapience. Many people believe that when we grow older, our sapience also increases as we gain experience and knowledge. Sapience is an important quality in a good teacher or mentor, since students can benefit from that wisdom. Sapience is an Old French word that comes from the Latin sapientia, "good taste, good sense, intelligence, or wisdom." The Proto-Indo-European root is sep-, "to taste or to perceive."
Vocabulary lists containing sapience
"Reality Check," Vocabulary from the short story
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Ella Minnow Pea
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Paradise Lost
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She continues with more sapience, offering Gerri as a sounding board.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2023
The legal lines defining who is in and who is out of the arc of legal protection are not, as Happy’s case shows, based on sapience or sentience or other rational boundaries.
From Slate ● Jun. 17, 2022
Such sapience only fully blossoms with maturity and hindsight, which "PEN15" creators and stars Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine fully capitalize upon in the final descent of their series' arc.
From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2021
They changed both law and policing, he believes, but most of all, they demonstrated the heroism and political sapience of the Queen.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 11, 2013
But I have learned this—when I want to get something I don't know how to get, I invariably regard it the height of sapience to go and ask some one who does know how.
From White Ashes by Sidney R. (Sidney Robinson) Kennedy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
