perspicacious
adjective
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Some perspective on perspicacious: the word combines the Latin perspicac- (from perspicax meaning “clear-sighted,” which in turn comes from perspicere, “to see through”) with the common English adjective suffix -ious. The result is a somewhat uncommon word used to describe someone (such as a reader or observer) or something (such as an essay or analysis) displaying the perception and understanding of subtleties others tend to miss, such as the distinctions between the words perspicacious, shrewd, sagacious, and astute—something our synonym chooser can help with.
Examples of perspicacious in a Sentence
Judy Berman, TIME, 14 June 2024
More perspicacious than angry invective alone, that alchemy of tones has been her signature since the early ’90s, when a 20-something Hanna fronted Bikini Kill, the punk band that became the most visible act associated with the third-wave feminist movement known as riot grrrl.
—TIME, 7 May 2024
One of the few perspicacious journalists of the Trump era, Graeme Wood, put it pithily: The Deep State is in the White House, and Trump appointed it.
—Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 13 Dec. 2023
With the help of friends in the publishing world, Jaffrey’s draft landed in the hands of the perspicacious Knopf editor Judith Jones in 1971.
—Mayukh Sen, Washington Post, 27 Nov. 2023
Photographs show Pym looking jolly and perspicacious, with charmingly crooked English teeth.
—Thomas Mallon, The New Yorker, 30 May 2022
This particular Ferrari F50 was delivered new, in 1996, to Étienne Léandri, a defense lawyer and perspicacious Ferrari collector from Monaco.
—Robert Ross, Robb Report, 7 Mar. 2022
As some of the nation’s most perspicacious observers have noted, self-regulation is a crucial component of fixing what’s wrong with social media.
—Gilad Edelman, Wired, 30 Sep. 2021
Parker also knits in a perspicacious take on the toxicity of the royal family, most particularly the poisonous effect of the institution and the vulturous press.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 31 Aug. 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'perspicacious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near perspicacious
Cite this Entry
“Perspicacious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perspicacious. Accessed 4 Nov. 2024.
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perspicacious
adjective
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