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.
The software, Sapience, claims to create "unprecedented transparency" within companies.
From BBC • Feb. 20, 2020
Kappel founded Sapience Therapeutics in October 2015, and set out to raise money to optimize the drug candidate and validate the science behind it.
From Nature • May 16, 2017
One of the key backers of Sapience is the global biopharmaceutical company Celgene, which has an established cancer-drug pipeline.
From Nature • May 16, 2017
By July 2016, Sapience had raised US$22.5 million from investors.
From Nature • May 16, 2017
Sapience is the result of evolution by natural selection, just as much as a physical characteristic, and it’s the most important step in the evolution of any species, our own included.”
From Little Fuzzy by Piper, H. Beam
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.
