savvy
Americanadjective
-
savvier,
comparative
-
savviest
superlative
noun
verb (used with or without object)
-
savvies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
savvied,
past participle, past
-
savvying
present participle
verb
-
to understand or get the sense of (an idea, etc)
-
I don't (he doesn't, etc) understand
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
savvysimple
-
savviessimple
-
have savviedperfect
-
has savviedperfect
-
am savvyingprogressive
-
are savvyingprogressive
-
is savvyingprogressive
-
have been savvyingperfect progressive
-
has been savvyingperfect progressive
Past
-
savviedsimple
-
had savviedperfect
-
was savvyingprogressive
-
were savvyingprogressive
-
had been savvyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of savvy
First recorded in 1775–85; from Spanish sabe, 3rd-person singular present of saber “to know,” from Latin sapere “to be wise, taste”; see sapient
Explanation
You are known as someone with a lot of business savvy, but only because you've managed to keep your staggering debts a secret. Which is actually pretty savvy. Someone who is savvy is shrewd and perceptive. Most English words stem directly from other European languages, like French and Latin. Not savvy. It comes from the West Indies, a twist on the French savez vous? — “Do you know?” Savvy was first recorded in its adjective form in 1905. Synonyms for the noun form include acumen, discernment, grasp, perception, and sharpness.
Vocabulary lists containing savvy
This Week in Words: August 11 - 17, 2018
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The Things They Carried
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Bright Ideas: Synonyms For "Smart"
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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.
See Examples For:
She was also a savvy businesswoman who wasn't afraid to make tough decisions.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
The people you describe in your story seem like savvy marketers in their own right.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Alston Causey, a vice president at the travel agency Travelmation, also said he’s seeing his clients get savvy with their itineraries as a way to trim their budgets.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
First erected in the early 1960s as an advertising gimmick, these giants are rising again thanks to preservationists, kitsch aficionados and savvy entrepreneurs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
They were savvy enough to bargain for forty minutes.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
But the market may be growing savvier about distinguishing between companies at risk of disruption and those set to benefit from AI.
From Barron's ● May 7, 2026
If a bill would be painful but manageable, paying out of pocket may be the savvier move in the long run.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 21, 2026
Tenev and Bhatt had built the company for the first-time investor, but had attracted many savvier, highly active traders.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025
In other cases, regarding HSAs specifically, people are using the money in a much savvier way.
From Slate ● Mar. 31, 2025
Relieved that I didn’t have to worry about him, I followed Sabrina and Daphne, another girl from Lykes Cottage who was a year older than I was and who seemed savvier than Sabrina.
From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
Even the savviest, most battle-tested investors may fear missing out.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
Some of the savviest tech users are also balking at sticking around for the AI upheaval.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
And the savviest Americans take advantage of all three.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 24, 2026
That challenge is growing, even for the savviest of us.
From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2026
Enter the NFL RedZone channel, one of the savviest things anyone’s ever put on TV.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2025
This fine example is plush and ripe, with plenty of nectarine and citrus flavors but without the aggressive grassiness of some New Zealand savvies.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 14, 2022
"When he gets the thing figured out, in six months or a year, and savvies it was a put-up job from the start, somebody'll have it coming."
From The Lonesome Trail and Other Stories by B. M. Bower
There's one man up there savvies downhill shootin'.
From The Land of Strong Men by A. M. (Arthur Murray) Chisholm
Them guns," said Dave, "pretty near shoot themselves if a feller savvies a gun at all.
From The Land of Strong Men by A. M. (Arthur Murray) Chisholm
I says to myself: 'Jo's been on the grade all her life and savvies conditions.
From The She Boss A Western Story by Arthur Preston Hankins
"I haven't savvied the code out well enough yet to read this one."
From El Diablo by Dan Sayre Groesbeck
And say, even if I couldn't have savvied a word, that smile would have been enough.
From Torchy and Vee by Sewell Ford
And it’s a blamed good thing my bronc savvied how t’ tend to business without me doin’ much!
From Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher by Eleanor Gates
They "savvied," and they told him so, each after his own individual manner.
From The Flying U Ranch by B. M. Bower
That's about how he would have put it aboard ship, but he hadn't quite savvied this shore-going chief clerk at his elbow.
From Wide Courses by James B. (James Brendan) Connolly
And Johnnie he cruises over to China, and the old fellow, savvying how things are, says all right, marry, and they get married, and he gives 'em his blessing and lays down and dies.
From Sonnie-Boy's People by James B. (James Brendan) Connolly
Well, there's time for a chin before the choo-choo starts—thought I'd be early, not savvying this kind of travelling a great deal.
From Red Saunders His Adventures West & East by Henry Wallace Phillips
For savvying everything, there's nobody going to give him the go-by!
From Under Fire: the story of a squad by Fitzwater Wray
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.
