sapient

[sey-pee-uhnt]

adjective

1. having or showing great wisdom or sound judgment.

2. having or showing self-awareness.

   sapient life forms.

sapient

/ ˈseɪpɪənt /

adjective

1. ironic,  wise or sagacious

Other Word Forms

• sapience noun
• sapiency noun
• sapiently adverb
• unsapient adjective
• unsapiently adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of sapient¹

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English sapyent, from Latin sapient- (stem of sapiēns, present participle of sapere “to be wise,” literally, “to taste, have taste”), equivalent to sapi- verb stem + -ent- adjective suffix; -ent

Word History and Origins

Origin of sapient¹

C15: from Latin sapere to taste

Example Sentences

Research also finds that feline characteristics may have rubbed off on their homo sapient counterparts.

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He wants to preserve a record of humanity that could survive for eons, to be read by successors to Homo sapiens on Earth or by sapient extraterrestrials.

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The movie is basically Spike Jonze’s movie Her, about a sapient AI companion and the man who falls in love with her, retooled as a comedy of mild life lessons.

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In the game, she says, all of the human characters have different ideas about how sapient AIs are, and how they should be treated.

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The only narration we hear is the voices of the men who fought the war, so the film is blessedly free of the sapient sounds of experts and academic historians.

Read more on The New Yorker