wisdom

Common sense is not a just a normative judgment about wisdom, but a structural feature of any functioning organization.
Red Tape Is Strangling Good Samaritans|Philip K. Howard|December 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He made an easy target, the know-it-all liberal egghead who demeaned the wisdom of the American people.
Obamacare Architect: I Wanted to Sound Smart|Ben Jacobs|December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
They possessed “wisdom beyond their years,” observed The Advocate.
The Rise and Fall of Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge, America’s Worst Gay Power Couple|James Kirchick|December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Miraculously, Malala survived, and her courage, wisdom, and optimism have continued to transfix and inspire the world.
Promoting Girls’ Education Isn’t Enough: Malala Can Do More|Paula Kweskin|December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Kundera sees fiction as a realm of many partial truths, its only certainty “the wisdom of uncertainty.”
The Birth of the Novel|Nick Romeo|November 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Wisdom, it is said, lies in small compass, so we should find it in you.
The Hot Swamp|R.M. Ballantyne
Men of genius are quick growers; but men of the highest genius, which includes the wisdom of human life, are not speedily ripe.
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 16|Various
The wise, for all their wisdom, hardly ever can see how innocence itself may lead the unwise into the pit digged by the wicked.
Oldfield|Nancy Huston Banks
Ceridwen was the goddess of wisdom; she distilled wisdom-giving drops in a cauldron.
A Short History of Wales|Owen M. Edwards
There is no wisdom, no device in the dust, any more than there is warmth in the dust.
The Eagle's Nest|John Ruskin

British Dictionary definitions for wisdom

wisdom

/ (ˈwɪzdəm) /

noun

the ability or result of an ability to think and act utilizing knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight

accumulated knowledge, erudition, or enlightenment

archaic a wise saying or wise sayings or teachings

obsolete soundness of mind

Related formsRelated adjective: sagacious

Word Origin for wisdom

Old English wīsdōm; see wise 1, -dom

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for wisdom

wisdom

Old English wisdom, from wis (see wise (adj.)) + -dom. A common Germanic compound (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian wisdom, Old Norse visdomr, Old High German wistuom "wisdom," German Weistum "judicial sentence serving as a precedent"). Wisdom teeth so called from 1848 (earlier teeth of wisdom, 1660s), a loan-translation of Latin dentes sapientiae, itself a loan-translation of Greek sophronisteres (used by Hippocrates, from sophron "prudent, self-controlled"), so called because they usually appear ages 17-25, when a person reaches adulthood.