Wisdom

How to spell wisdom

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce wisdom

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does wisdom mean?

1. nounThe quality of having good judgement and deep understanding gained through experience and knowledge.

Wisdom in a sentence

• The older managers shared their hard-won wisdom with the new recruits.

• With age and experience came a quiet wisdom that her colleagues respected.

Where does wisdom come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Wisdom is a thoroughly native English word, descending from the Old English wisdom, which combined wis, meaning 'wise' or 'learned', with the suffix -dom, denoting a state, condition, or domain. That suffix is the same one preserved in 'freedom', 'kingdom', and 'boredom', where it marks an abstract condition or realm. The root wis traces back to the Proto-Germanic wissaz and ultimately to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to see' or 'to know', the same family that gave Latin its videre 'to see' and English the word 'wit'. From its earliest recorded use the word carried the sense of accumulated knowledge joined to sound judgement, not mere cleverness. The spelling looks straightforward but the silent letter is the trap: the 'd' sits between two syllables and is easy to drop, since people often write it the way they say it.

How the word is built

• wis- (from wise: knowing, discerning)
• -dom (state or condition)