as in insight
the ability to understand inner qualities or relationships
the kind of sapience that comes from a lifetime of experience as an educator
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Recent Examples of sapience
Some people go the other way and say that sapience alone might be enough.
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IEEE Spectrum, 23 Jan. 2025
Stories of such yearnings also illustrate a key requirement for sapience: resistance to oppression.
—Katherine Alejandra Cross, WIRED, 7 Sep. 2023
This seeming truth is said with a kind of sleepy sapience, as though only the naïve or the self-deluded would imagine anything otherwise.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 27 Nov. 2019
IEEE Spectrum, 23 Jan. 2025
Stories of such yearnings also illustrate a key requirement for sapience: resistance to oppression.
—Katherine Alejandra Cross, WIRED, 7 Sep. 2023
This seeming truth is said with a kind of sleepy sapience, as though only the naïve or the self-deluded would imagine anything otherwise.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 27 Nov. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sapience
Noun
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Lately, several of the videos have come from the Indiana football program and Heisman-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who has gone viral a number of times for his candid humility and insight during the Hoosiers’ unlikely run to the College Football Playoff national championship.—
Joe Arruda,
Hartford Courant,
13 Jan. 2026
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The Semafor World Economy Global Advisory Board is a group of visionary business leaders helping Semafor shape its new platform that empowers global CEOs to navigate extraordinary complexity through the expert curation of profound insights, ideas, and diverse perspectives.—
Rachel Keidan,
semafor.com,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The persecution of Trotsky and the Moscow Trials, which caused a rift in the American left, revealed the weakness of Cowley’s party-line political thinking, just as all his other work demonstrated the scope of his literary intellect.—
Vince Passaro,
Harpers Magazine,
30 Dec. 2025
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Mister Terrific emerges as one of Superman’s smartest anchors, threading intellect through a story preoccupied with power, trust, and what the world expects its heroes to be.—
Kathleen Newman-Bremang,
Refinery29,
30 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Sapience.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sapience. Accessed 16 Jan. 2026.
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