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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Inside, cabinets are crammed with Happy Meal toys from around the globe, offering surprising insights into regional preferences and pop culture trends.—
Zoey Goto,
Travel + Leisure,
8 Mar. 2026
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Next, the team wants to use digital reconstruction methods to correct deformation on other parts of the skull, such as the braincase, to reveal insights about the brain size of Little Foot — and potentially unlock clues about the cognitive abilities of our early human ancestors.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
7 Mar. 2026
Noun
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At its core, reading a physical book, particularly a novel, connotes more than just taste, intellect, or even a desire to pass your time in a more productive way than doomscrolling.—
Elizabeth Logan,
Glamour,
9 Mar. 2026
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That effect, in Anderson’s succinct terms, is one of pleasure or displeasure—both are embedded in an experience as much of the body as the intellect.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Sapience.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sapience. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026.
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