Newsbusters.org
Did you know?
Road Runner always bests Wile E. Coyote in the famous Looney Tunes cartoon series, but both characters help demonstrate meanings of the word astute. Astute comes from the Latin adjective astutus, meaning “cunning, crafty, or clever,” which in turn comes from the noun astus, meaning “craft.” The English adjective, accordingly, can describe both the crafty and the wily. It’s easy to see how this applies to Wile E. Coyote: in each episode, Road Runner races along the highways of the American Southwest while the coyote sets an elaborate trap for the bird, usually with the aid of some goofy product ordered from the fictitious Acme company. But alas, Road Runner is astute, as in “mentally sharp or clever.” In other words, he is not only quick on his feet, but quick on the uptake. He usually catches wind of the schemes, which ultimately backfire due to either the products’ chronic unreliability or Coyote’s own ineptitude. Road Runner, never captured or damaged, responds with a characteristic “Beep! Beep!” and runs off.
Examples of astute in a Sentence
Ben Wallace-Wells, Rolling Stone, 15 Nov. 2007
He asked astute diagnosticians around the country how they approached and cracked difficult diagnoses and what happened when they failed. Misdiagnosis is not an insignificant problem: Groopman cites a finding that between one in six and one in seven patients is incorrectly assessed.
—Ruth Levy Guyer, Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2007
And finally, even if she had never actually uttered the bon mot that would be famously attributed to her, that if she had two heads, she would risk one in the king's service, could the astute young duchess actually have had input into the implausible negotiations?
—Harvey Rachlin, Scandals, Vandals, and Da Vincis, 2007
Focusing largely upon Western alchemy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, she has a sharp eye for how alchemical images surface in literature of that period. Readers of Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare will find illuminating insights. Abraham reveals the far reaches of her astute literary intelligence by analyzing alchemical imagery encoded in a broad range of works, from Chaucer and Milton to Vladimir Nabokov and P. G. Wodehouse.
—Norman Weinstein, Parabola, November 1999
He is an astute observer of the current political scene.
Astute readers will notice the error.
His analysis of the battle was very astute.
Gary Graff, Billboard, 25 Oct. 2025
Senne Lammens continuing his composed start to his United career could at least counteract those types of chances for Brighton, while Amorim’s defenders will need to be astute to the movement of Hurzeler’s front-line.
—Laurie Whitwell, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2025
The odd, sometimes astute connections and ideas her seemingly new brain forms are not entirely unpleasant.
—Bekah Waalkes, The Atlantic, 25 Sep. 2025
The other, more astute comparison might be to another game Kojima co-produced with legendary horror director Guillermo del Toro.
—Brian Welk, IndieWire, 23 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for astute
Cite this Entry
“Astute.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/astute. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
Copy Citation
Share