Synonyms of savvy

savvy 1 of 3

noun

as in skills

knowledge gained by actually doing or living through something

she's an excellent scholar of political science, but lacks the kind of savvy needed to run for public office

Synonyms & Similar Words

• skills
• experience
• expertise
• proficiency
• know-how
• chops
• moxie
• background
• mastery
• acquaintance
• familiarity
• intimacy
• conversance
• command

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• inexperience
• ignorance
• unfamiliarity
• unawareness

savvy

2 of 3

adjective

ˈsa-vē 

as in smart

having or showing a practical cleverness or judgment

a particularly savvy investor, he was among the first to see the potential in tech stocks

Synonyms & Similar Words

• smart
• astute
• shrewd
• wise
• sharp
• veteran
• clever
• experienced
• intelligent
• knowing
• brilliant
• hardheaded
• keen
• canny
• cunning
• heady
• quick
• sharp-witted
• slick
• clear-eyed
• bright
• wily
• clear-sighted
• crafty
• subtle
• hard-boiled
• insightful
• artful
• perceptive
• discerning
• sagacious
• tricky
• perspicacious
• sly
• cagey
• foxy
• resourceful
• devious
• guileful
• sage
• nimble
• brainy
• ingenious
• sapient
• agile
• discriminating
• percipient
• dodgy
• pawky
• alert
• apt
• discriminative
• quick-witted
• calculating
• scheming
• sharp-eyed
• sharp-sighted

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• naive
• ingenuous
• unknowing
• gullible
• guileless
• innocent
• artless
• unwise
• exploitable
• dumb
• dense
• unperceptive
• obtuse
• stupid
• simple
• slow
• foolish
• dull
• unintelligent
• ignorant
• dopey
• brain-dead
• thoughtless
• idiotic
• thickheaded
• uninformed
• feebleminded
• silly
• brainless
• weak-minded
• moronic
• witless
• imbecile
• dim-witted
• knuckleheaded
• gormless
• airheaded
• slow-witted
• softheaded
• empty-headed
• lamebrain
• lunkheaded
• half-witted
• thick-witted
• birdbrained

savvy

3 of 3

verb

as in to know

to have a clear idea of

the man growled, "Don't ever date my daughter again—you savvy?"

Synonyms & Similar Words

• know
• understand
• appreciate
• decipher
• recognize
• comprehend
• grasp
• see
• sense
• discern
• realize
• get
• perceive
• make
• conceive
• apprehend
• assimilate
• intuit
• dig
• seize
• cotton (to or on to)
• tumble (to)
• compass
• make out
• behold
• catch on (to)
• decode
• catch
• register
• grok
• twig
• cognize
• pick up on
• fathom
• absorb
• digest
• take in
• penetrate
• pierce

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• miss
• mistake
• misunderstand
• misread
• misinterpret
• misconstrue
• misapprehend
• misperceive
• misconceive

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of savvy

Noun

That savvy turned to genius when Joe starting serving stone crabs there in 1921, turning his namesake restaurant into a century-old global phenomenon. —Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 1 Feb. 2026

Officials say the scammers' schemes range from the savvy to the sloppy -- and all are brazen. —ABC News, 28 Jan. 2026

Adjective

According to Lizbeth Levinson, an attorney with Fox Rothschild, this is a savvy strategy on the part of Costco, and one that has since been imitated by over 1000 other companies. —Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 20 Feb. 2026

There are many who believe Gold Zone is just the first of a long line of new applications for the concept, in an era when more big media companies are scrambling to connect with younger, digitally savvy viewers eager to see something of interest, and then quickly move on to something else of note. —Brian Steinberg, Variety, 19 Feb. 2026

Verb

In my experience, fintechs do a great job of bringing together young, energetic and tech-savvy professionals with experienced hands who understand the inner workings of the traditional finance world. —Chris Perry, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2025

But Levine, a social media savvy young millennial, knew the line between sharing and scaring. —Alessandra Schade, Time, 5 Aug. 2025

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