What does perspicacious mean?
Word: Perspicacious
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Perspicacious means quick to notice and understand things that other people miss.
Synonyms: perceptive, observant
Word origin: From Latin perspicax, perspicacis, first used in English in the early 17th century.
How do you spell perspicacious?
Syllables: per - spi - ca - cious
Tricky part: The ending is acious, as in capacious and audacious, with a c where you hear the sh sound; perspicatious and perspicacous are the usual slips.
Watch out for: perspicatious, perspicacous, perspicasious
Memory tip: A perspicacious person catches what others miss, and the word catches two c's of its own: one in the middle, and one in the ending, where it makes the sh sound.
Perspicacious in a sentence
Example 1: A perspicacious reader will spot the clue to the mystery in the very first chapter.
Example 2: Our perspicacious class monitor guessed from the teacher's smile that the test had been put off.
Example 3: It was perspicacious of Dadi to pack umbrellas while the sky was still clear.
Fun Fact
The matching noun is perspicacity, the quality that fictional detectives from Sherlock Holmes to Byomkesh Bakshi are famous for.
Practise the CREST Way
Back to the Roots
Choose the correct option:
Perspicacious comes from the Latin word perspicax. Someone described as perspicax was ___.
a) soft-spoken
b) quick-footed
c) sharp-sighted
d) light-hearted
Show answer
c) sharp-sighted. Perspicax meant able to see clearly, and English moved the idea from the eyes to the mind.
Word Puzzle
Match each word with a word of similar meaning:
1. perspicacious 2. tenacious 3. loquacious a. determined b. talkative c. shrewd
a) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c
b) 1-a, 2-c, 3-b
c) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b
d) 1-c, 2-b, 3-a
Show answer
c) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b. A perspicacious person is shrewd, a tenacious one refuses to give up, and a loquacious one loves to talk.
Word Tally
How many words are misspelt in the given sentence?
The perspicacious coach noticed that our goalkeeper always dived to the left, so she changed the traning plan and made us practise penaltys before the final.
a) 1
b) 0
c) 2
d) 3
Show answer
c) 2. Training keeps the i of train, and penalty changes its y to ies in the plural: two mistakes in all.
Spellacadabra
Choose the correct option to make a meaningful word:
per___cacious
a) spy
b) spe
c) spi
d) spa
Show answer
c) spi. After per comes spi, the same letters you see in conspicuous, a word from the same Latin family.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which person is being perspicacious?
a) Rohan buys the first shirt the shopkeeper shows him at the counter
b) Rohan spots that the shop's sale price is higher than last week's
c) Rohan leaves his wallet behind on the shop counter after paying
d) Rohan waits outside in the car while his sister does the shopping
Show answer
b) Rohan spots that the shop's sale price is higher than last week's
2. Which word is the opposite of perspicacious?
a) obtuse
b) discerning
c) canny
d) astute
Show answer
a) obtuse
