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wise

adjective · verb · noun

Simple meaning

Showing good judgement or the benefit of experience.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

wyz
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈwaɪz

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Showing good judgement or the benefit of experience.

  2. colloquialironicsarcastic

    Disrespectful.

  3. colloquial

    Aware, informed (to something).

verb

  1. To become wise.

noun

  1. United States Jewish leader (born in Hungary) (1874-1949)

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Showing good judgement or the benefit of experience.

Used this way, wise is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Positive
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Positive and appreciative
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use wise

  • “It was a wise decision to save money for a rainy day.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

wise counselwise policywise decision

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • wiselyadverbDerived adverb

    In a wise manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • wise upverbCompound term

    Get wise to.

  • wise mennounCompound term

    The sages who visited Jesus and Mary and Joseph shortly after Jesus was born.

  • wise mannounCompound term

    A wise and trusted guide and advisor.

  • wise guynounCompound term

    An upstart who makes conceited, sardonic, insolent comments.

  • get wiseverbCompound term

    Understand, usually after some initial difficulty.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: showing good judgement or the benefit of experience

sensibleknowing

Antonyms

Sense: showing good judgement or the benefit of experience

foolish

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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.