Word of the Day : July 2, 2026
Sagacious
adjective suh-GAY-shus
What It Means
- Someone or something described as sagacious has or shows an ability to understand difficult ideas and situations and to make good decisions. Sagacious may be considered a formal synonym of wise and discerning.
- // Student reviews paint the writing professor as a sagacious mentor and a compassionate teacher.
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SAGACIOUS in Context
Someone or something described as sagacious has or shows an ability to understand difficult ideas and situations and to make good decisions. Sagacious may be considered a formal synonym of wise and discerning.
// Student reviews paint the writing professor as a sagacious mentor and a compassionate teacher.
Did You Know?
You might expect, wise word wonk that you are, that the word sagacious is etymologically linked with sage, which, as an adjective, means “wise” or, as a noun, “a wise person.” However, despite similarities of spelling, sound, and sense, the two words are not closely related. Sagacious comes from sagire, a Latin verb meaning “to perceive keenly,” while sage comes from a different Latin verb, sapere, which means “to taste,” “to have good taste,” or “to be wise.” Sagacious entered the English language around the beginning of the 17th century and, for some decades, referred to perceptiveness of sight, taste, and especially, smell, hewing close to its Latin ancestor. It has largely lost the sense (no pun intended) of sensory keenness, and now almost exclusively describes someone or something displaying keen, discerning judgment.
Aquinas College Library 