acumen


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ac·u·men

(ăk′yə-mən, ə-kyo͞o′mən)
n.
Quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgment or insight: "A brilliant acumen in agricultural matters ... had made the old man a legend in the district" (James Herriot).

[Latin acūmen, from acuere, to sharpen, from acus, needle; see ak- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
Usage Note: The pronunciation (ăk′yə-mən), with stress on the first syllable, has long been accepted as a standard pronunciation. It is an Anglicization of an older, traditional pronunciation (ə-kyo͞o′mən) that reflects the word's Latin origin. In our 2016 survey, only 34 percent of the Usage Panel found the older pronunciation acceptable (down from 60 percent in 1997), and only 14 percent preferred it, suggesting that this pronunciation is falling out of use.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

acumen

(ˈækjʊˌmɛn; əˈkjuːmən)
n
the ability to judge well; keen discernment; insight
[C16: from Latin: sharpness, from acuere to sharpen, from acus needle]
aˈcuminous adj
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

a•cu•men

(əˈkyu mən, ˈæk yə-)

n.
keen insight; shrewdness: business acumen.
[1525–35; < Latin acūmen sharpness =acū-, s. of acuere to sharpen (see acute) + -men n. suffix]
a•cu′mi•nous, adj.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.acumen - a tapering pointacumen - a tapering point      
plant process, enation - a natural projection or outgrowth from a plant body or organ
2.acumen - shrewdness shown by keen insightacumen - shrewdness shown by keen insight  
astuteness, perspicaciousness, perspicacity, shrewdness - intelligence manifested by being astute (as in business dealings)
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

acumen

noun judgment, intelligence, perception, wisdom, insight, wit, ingenuity, sharpness, cleverness, keenness, shrewdness, discernment, perspicacity, sagacity, smartness, smarts (slang, chiefly U.S.), astuteness, acuteness, perspicuity His sharp business acumen meant he quickly rose to the top.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

acumen

noun
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations

acumen

[ˈækjʊmen] Nperspicacia f, tino m, agudeza f
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

acumen

[əˈkjuːmən ˈækjʊmən] nperspicacité f
business acumen → sens m des affaires
political acumen → sens m de la politique
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

acumen

nScharfsinn m; to show (considerable) acumen(großen) Scharfsinn beweisen; business acumenGeschäftssinn m; political acumenpolitische Klugheit
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

acumen

[ˈækjʊmɛn] nacume m, perspicacia
business acumen → fiuto negli affari
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
References in classic literature ?
Knowing the young reporter as we do, we can understand with what acumen he had traced, step by step, the story of Mathilde Stangerson and Jean Roussel.
He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension præternatural.
Rochester had sometimes read my unspoken thoughts with an acumen to me incomprehensible: in the present instance he took no notice of my abrupt vocal response; but he smiled at me with a certain smile he had of his own, and which he used but on rare occasions.
No man enters a Martian city without giving a very detailed and satisfactory account of himself, nor did I delude myself with the belief that I could for a moment impose upon the acumen of the officers of the guard to whom I should be taken the moment I applied at any one of the gates.
Sometimes, ascending hills, when the winded horse breathed hard from his red nostrils, and heaved his flanks, the captain, left to more freedom of thought, reflected on the prodigious genius of Aramis, a genius of acumen and intrigue, a match to which the Fronde and the civil war had produced but twice.
For a man who was never in the country, and who did not evidently do much in the way of business, his knowledge and acumen were wonderful.
I chuckled excessively when I thought of my acumen. It was the first time I had ever known Wyatt to keep from me any of his artistical secrets; but here he evidently intended to steal a march upon me, and smuggle a fine picture to New York, under my very nose; expecting me to know nothing of the matter.
The Will to Power is this force, "the instinct of self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results thereof." A certain lack of acumen in psychological questions and the condition of affairs in England at the time Darwin wrote, may both, according to Nietzsche, have induced the renowned naturalist to describe the forces of nature as he did in his "Origin of Species".
Palfrey was capable of horse-whipping a too rash pretender to his daughter's hand; and, moreover, he had three tall sons: it was clear that a suitor would be at a disadvantage with such a family, unless travel and natural acumen had given him a countervailing power of contrivance.
And it was at this precise moment, just as the two spectators, reinforced now by eleven other men of sporting tastes, were congratulating themselves on their acumen in having stopped to watch, that Police-Constable Robert Bryce, intruding fourteen stones of bone and muscle between the combatants, addressed to Mr Shute these memorable words: ''Ullo, 'ullo!
The skipper openly admired his guest's acumen, stiffened himself to make indignant denial, then gracefully surrendered.
When all else had failed to shake his resolution, they had applied lawyers to him, with the threat of getting out guardianship papers and of confining him in the state asylum for the insane--which was reasonable for a man who had, a quarter of a century before, speculated away all but ten meagre acres of a California principality, and who had displayed no better business acumen ever since.