Basic Details
Word: Sagacious
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Wise and able to understand people and situations well, so that you make good decisions.
Synonyms: wise, shrewd, perceptive, astute
Antonyms: foolish, unwise, naive
Word origin: From Latin sagax, quick-witted.
How to Spell Sagacious
Syllables: sa - ga - cious
Tricky part: It has a single g and ends in -cious, not -tious or -cius. Students write sagatious or saggacious.
Watch out for: sagatious, saggacious, sagacius
Memory tip: It starts like sage, a wise person, and ends in -cious like precious. A sagacious sage gives precious advice.
Usage Examples
Example 1: The sagacious old minister advised the king to make peace.
Example 2: Nani's sagacious advice saved us from a costly mistake.
Example 3: A sagacious captain changes the field to suit each batsman.
Fun Fact
The noun is sagacity, and the same -cious to -city pattern turns audacious into audacity and tenacious into tenacity.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word sagacious as used in the sentence:
The sagacious judge saw through the trader's lies at once.
a) foolish
b) wise
c) clever
d) shrewd
Show answer
a) foolish. Shrewd, wise and clever are close to sagacious; a foolish judge would have believed the lies.
Word Cookie
Fill in the missing letters to complete the word:
sa_ac_o_s
a) g, e, u
b) j, i, u
c) g, i, a
d) g, i, u
Show answer
d) g, i, u. Hard g after sa, then the -cious ending of gracious and precious.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
Only a cgsoauisa general could have won that battle with so few soldiers.
a) gracious
b) audacious
c) spacious
d) sagacious
Show answer
d) sagacious. Spacious has a p, gracious an r and audacious a d; with a g and two a's, the word is sagacious.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A sagacious person is most likely to ____.
a) rush into silly plans
b) forget simple instructions
c) believe every rumour
d) think carefully before acting
Show answer
d) think carefully before acting
2. Which way of using pocket money is the most sagacious?
a) spending it all on day one
b) saving some for later needs
c) leaving it in the park
d) lending it to strangers
Show answer
b) saving some for later needs
