savvy

CEFRB2

/ˈsæv.i/

adjective · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Having practical knowledge and good judgment about a subject.

  2. 02

    noun

    Practical knowledge and good judgment about a subject or situation.

Examples

  • Successful fascists today are savvy enough not to call themselves fascists.

  • You're one savvy negotiator.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
2
Citations
2
Synonyms
2

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. To understand.

  2. Shrewd, well-informed and perceptive.

More examples

In context

  • Tom is savvy, isn't he?

  • He's probably a perfect technician as a surgeon, but he knows you get only what you grab. Think of the years it's taken me to learn what he savvied all the time!

  • That such a safe adaptation could come of The Hunger Games speaks more to the trilogy’s commercial ascent than the book’s actual content, which is audacious and savvy in its dark calculations.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Having studied the market for years, the blank investor avoided common financial traps.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

Alteration of save, sabi (“to know”) (in English-based creoles and pidgins), from Portuguese sabe (“[she/he] knows”), from saber (“to know”), from Latin sapere (“to taste; to know”). First appears c. 1785 in a dictionary by Francis Grose, as a noun, “practical sense, intelligence”; also a verb, “to know, to understand”. The adjective is first recorded 1905, from the noun.