politic
adjective · noun · verb
Simple meaning
Shrewd, prudent and expedient.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pahluhtikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɑlətɪk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Shrewd, prudent and expedient; showing policy.
Discreet and diplomatic.
Artful, crafty or cunning.
noun
A politics; a set of political beliefs.
verb
To engage in political activity.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Shrewd, prudent and expedient; showing policy.
Used this way, politic is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in government or politics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use politic
- “It is neither polite nor politic to get into other people's quarrels.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A leader engaged in civil administration.
The form of government of a social organization.
A courteous manner that respects accepted social usage.
Involving or characteristic of politics or parties or politicians.
With regard to social relationships involving authority.
In a polite manner.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A person active in party politics.
A person active in party politics.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.