Skip to content
OneKitly

wise

adjectiveverbnounverbcommon in dialogue

  • //waɪz//

Showing good judgement or the benefit of experience.

adjective

  1. 1

    Showing good judgement or the benefit of experience.

    Storing extra food for the winter was a wise decision.

    They were considered the wise old men of the administration.

  2. 2

    Disrespectful.

    Don't get wise with me!

  3. 3

    Aware, informed (to something).

    Be careful: the boss is wise to your plan to call out sick.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyd- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *wéydos Proto-Indo-European *weyd-s-ós Proto-Germanic *wīsaz Old English wīs Middle English wys, wyse English wise From Middle English wys, wyse, from Old English wīs (“wise”), from Proto-Germanic *wīsaz (“knowledgeable, wise”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéydos (“seeing; knowledge”), from *weyd- (“to see”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian wiis (“wise”), Dutch wijs (“wise”), German weis, weise (“wise”), Low German wies (“wise; clever”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish vis (“wise”), Icelandic vís (“wise; certain”), Gothic *𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍃 (*weis, “wise”); also Irish fios (“knowledge; information”), Manx fys (“knowledge; information”), Scottish Gaelic fhios, fios (“knowledge; information”), Welsh gwys, gwŷs (“citation, summons”), Latin videō (“to look, perceive, see; to note, observe; to comprehend, understand”), Greek είδος (eídos, “form, kind, type”), Albanian vizë (“line, stripe, track; dash”), Latvian veids (“form, kind, mode, type”), Lithuanian veidas (“face; appearance, aspect, look”), Belarusian ве́даць (vjédacʹ, “to know”), Bulgarian вям (vjam, “to know”), Czech vědět (“to know”), Polish wiedzieć (“to know”), Russian ве́дать (védatʹ, “to know”), Serbo-Croatian vedeti, viedieti (“to know”), Slovak vedieť (“to know”), Slovene vedeti (“to know”), Ukrainian ві́дати (vídaty, “to know”), Armenian գիտեմ (gitem, “I know”), գիտենալ (gitenal), գիտնալ (gitnal, “to know”), Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬉𐬛 (vaēd, “find”), 𐬬𐬌𐬛 (vid, “to know”), Persian نوید (navid / nawīd, nuwēd, “invitation; annunciation; good news”), Tocharian A ime (“awareness, consciousness, memory, thought”), Tocharian B īme (“awareness, consciousness, memory, thought”), ūwe (“educated, learned, knowledgeable”), Sanskrit वेदस् (vedas, “knowledge, science; property, wealth”). Compare wit.

verb

  1. 1

    To become wise.

  2. 2

    slangUsually with "up", to inform or learn.

    Mo wised him up about his situation.

    After Mo had a word with him, he wised up.

noun

  1. 1

    archaicWay, manner, or method.

    In such wise that all the beasts, great and small, came to the court save Reynard the Fox.

    Now the birth of Iesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Ioseph (before they came together) shee was found with childe of the holy Ghost.

    […] the prize Dead Greece vouchsafes to living eyes, — Her Art for ever in fresh wise From hour to hour rejoicing me.

    A riven hood was pulled across his eyes; The token of him being upon this wise Made for a sign of Lust.

Etymology

From Middle English wise, from Old English wīse, from Proto-Germanic *wīsō. Cognate with Dutch wijze, German Weise, Norwegian vis, Swedish visa, vis, Italian guisa, Spanish guisa. Compare -wise. Doublet of guise.

verb

  1. 1

    To instruct.

  2. 2

    To advise; induce.

  3. 3

    To show the way, guide.

  4. 4

    To direct the course of, pilot.

  5. 5

    To cause to turn.

Etymology

From Middle English wisen (“to advise, direct”), from Old English wisian (“to show the way, guide, direct”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīsōn, from Proto-Germanic *wīsōną (“to show the way, dispense knowledge”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know”). Compare Dutch wijzen (“to indicate, point out”), German weisen (“to show, indicate”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål vise (“to show”), Norwegian Nynorsk visa (“to show”).

Forms

plural
wises
comparative
wiser, more wise
superlative
wisest, most wise
past tense
wised
past participle
wised
present participle
wising
third person singular
wises
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).