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wise

Pronunciation: /waɪz/

The English word “wise” has 11 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Showing good judgement or the benefit of experience.
  2. Disrespectful.
  3. Aware, informed (to something).

verb

  1. To become wise.
  2. Usually with "up", to inform or learn.
  3. To instruct.
  4. To advise; induce.
  5. To show the way, guide.
  6. To direct the course of, pilot.
  7. To cause to turn.

noun

  1. Way, manner, or method.

Etymology

From Middle English wys, wyse, from Old English wīs (“wise”), from Proto-Germanic *wīsaz (“knowledgeable, wise”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéydos (“seeing; knowledge”), from *weyd- (“to see”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian wiis (“wise”), Dutch wijs (“wise”), German weis, weise (“wise”), Low German wies (“wise; clever”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish vis (“wise”),…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.