wisdom means the Wisdom of Solomon, a book of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canon of the Old Testament, considered apocryphal by Protestants. It carries an Arena rating of 1553, earned across 16 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, wisdom ranks #2,614 of 42,762 for Qualifying, #3,315 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #3,462 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #3,935 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
wisdom is pronounced /ˈwɪzdəm/.
Why “wisdom” is a great word
The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment, and the ability to discern what is true, right, or lasting in order to act accordingly. From Middle English wisdom, from Old English wīsdōm (“wisdom”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīsadōm, from Proto-Germanic *wīsadōmaz, corresponding to wise (meaning “knowledgeable, discerning”) + -dom (a suffix forming nouns of state or condition). Unlike "knowledge," which is the accumulated library of facts, or "cleverness," which is the tactical spark for an immediate advantage, wisdom is the slow, practical synthesis of that library into a guiding principle. It is the weathered hand knowing precisely when to prune the tree, the quiet decision to hold one’s tongue in a heated room, and the courage to choose a lasting peace over a satisfying victory—the hard-won art of aligning one’s actions with the deeper currents of the world.
Etymology
From Middle English wisdom, from Old English wīsdōm (“wisdom”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīsadōm, from Proto-Germanic *wīsadōmaz (“wisdom”), corresponding to wise + -dom. Cognate with Scots wisdom, wysdom (“wisdom”), West Frisian wiisdom (“wisdom”), Dutch wijsdom (“wisdom”), German Weistum (“legal sentence”), Danish/Norwegian/Swedish visdom (“wisdom”), Icelandic vísdómur (“wisdom”).
name
- The Wisdom of Solomon, a book of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canon of the Old Testament, considered apocryphal by Protestants.
noun
- An element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise.
- A piece of wise advice.
- The discretionary use of knowledge for the greatest good.
- The ability to apply relevant knowledge in an insightful way, especially to different situations from that in which the knowledge was gained.
- The ability to make a decision based on the combination of knowledge, experience, and intuitive understanding.
- The ability to know and apply spiritual truths.
- A group of wombats.e.g.“It would also be difficult to get to the bottom line accurately if a wisdom of wombats ate your working papers. Both scenarios are equal in probability.” — 2007 April 16, Tony Cooper, “Ebay is Unfair!”, in rec.collecting.coins (Usenet), retrieved 05 Sep 2022:
- A group of owls.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).