Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Astute |
AstuteAdjective1. Marked by practical hardheaded intelligence; "a smart businessman"; "an astute tenant always reads the small print in a lease"; "he was too shrewd to go along with them on a road that could lead only to their overthrow". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "astute" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1517. (references) |
Etymology: Astute \As*tute"\, adjective. [Latin expression astutus, from astus craft, cunning; perhaps cognate with English acute.]. (Websters 1913) |
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
ASTUTE | English | Association of System 2000 Users for Technical Exchange | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: AstuteSynonyms: sharp (adj), shrewd (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Cunning | Adjective: cunning, crafty, artful; skillful; subtle, feline, vulpine; cunning as a fox, cunning as a serpent; deep, deep laid; profound; designing, contriving; intriguing;Verb: strategic, diplomatic, politic, Machiavelian, timeserving; artificial; tricky, tricksy; wily, sly, slim, insidious, stealthy; underhand; (hidden); subdolous; deceitful; slippery as an eel, evasive; crooked; arch, pawky, shrewd, acute; sharp, sharp as a tack, sharp as a needle; canny, astute, leery, knowing, up to snuff, too clever by half, not to be caught with chaff. |
Intelligence Wisdom | Adjective: intelligent, quick of apprehension, keen, acute, alive, brainy, awake, bright, quick, sharp; quick witted, keen witted, clear witted, sharp- eyed, sharp sighted, sharp witted; wide-awake; canny, shrewd, astute; clear-headed; farsighted; discerning, perspicacious, penetrating, piercing; argute; quick-witted, nimble-witted, needle-witted; sharp as a needle, sharp as a tack; alive to; (cognizant); clever; (apt); arch; (cunning); pas si bete; acute. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Astute |
| English words defined with "astute": Astucious, astuteness ♦ perspicaciousness, perspicacity ♦ sagacious, sharp, shrewd, shrewdness. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "astute": MOSES. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "astute": Astucious. (references) |
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | The governments of Japan and Europe are particularly astute at indirectly aiding environmental companies from their nations by providing project funding and by funding research and study grants to Thai public and private bodies. (references) | |
The most important factors for successful entry of software products into the Taiwan market are language localization and business practice customization of the products, continuous upgrading and development of new software versions, tailored promotional activities, flexible pricing policy, possessing a reputation for reliable service and aggressive and astute representation in the local market. (references) | ||
Economic History | Bangladesh | The local agent should be reputable, imaginative, active, politically astute and well connected, and technically competent. (references) |
Norway | With proper market promotion and support, a good local business partner and/or an astute local office, American companies have unusually good prospects in this small but affluent market. (references) | |
Czech Republic | Signs of economic resurgence began to appear in the wake of the shock therapy that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) labeled the "big bang" of January 1991. Since then, astute economic management has led to the liberalization of 95% of all price controls, annual inflation in the 10% range, modest budgetary deficits, low unemployment, a positive balance-of-payments position, a stable exchange rate, a shift of exports from former communist economic bloc markets to Western Europe, and relatively low foreign debt. (references) | |
Travel | Greece | Greek business people are astute bargainers and value enduring personal business relationships. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Astute" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Astute" is used about 247 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 247 | 18,964 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
astute | 21 |
astute network | 5 |
advice astute b b mortgage mortgage uk | 3 |
astute class submarine | 3 |
astute business changing economy fast in information leaders recognize succeed that today | 3 |
astute solution | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "astute"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | i mprehtë (acute, bright, clairvoyant, Clarion, discerning, edgy, exquisite, fine, high, high pitched, incisive, ingenious, keen, keen-witted, knowing, nimble, penetrating, penetrative, perceptive, percipient, perspicacious, piercing, piping, pointed, pungent, quick, ridged, ridgy, sagacious, salt, sharp, sharp cut, shrill, subtile, subtle, tart, trenchant), finok (cagey, crafty, cunning, politic, sharp, smart, wily). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | فطن (acute, clever, discern, discerning, keen, sagacious, shrewd, smart, sober up), ماهر (adept, adroit, clever, consummate, deft, ingenious, nimble, proficient, shrewd, skilful, skilled, skillful, slick, sound, subtle), ذكي (acute, agile, brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, cute, dashing, fox, ingenious, intelligent, knowledgeable, luminous, natty, penetrating, quick, sagacious, sharp, sharp-witted, smart, wise, witty), داهية (adroit, artful, pawky, quizzical, resourceful, shifty, shrewd, sly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | лукав (crafty, designing, feline, furtive, guileful, parlous, pawky, serpentine, sly, snaky, subtle, tricky, underhand, wicked, wily), проницателен (acute, argus-eyed, clairvoyant, clear-sighted, discerning, discriminating, discriminative, long-headed, penetrating, penetrative, perspicacious, piercing, profound, sagacious, sharp-sighted, shrewd, wise). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 精明 (skilled). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | vychytralý (artful, designing, devious, shrewd, shrewish, sly, wily), rafinovaný (crafty, cunning, refined, sneaky, sophisticated, subtle, wily), bystrý (acute, alert, bright, discerning, exquisite, keen, keen-witted, nimble, penetrating, perspicacious, quick, quick-witted, sagacious, sharp-witted, shrewd, smart, subtle), šikovný (cunning, cute, deft, dexterous, handy, ingenious, natty, nifty, skilled). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | schrander (acute, shrewd), scherpzinnig (acute, shrewd), pienter (acute, shrewd). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | sagaca (shrewd). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faeroese | sniðfundigur (acute, clever, cunning, shrewd, sly, smart), listilærdur (acute, shrewd), gløggur (abstemious, acute, intelligent, sagacious, shrewd, sober, staid, temperate). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | موشکاف (Scrutinizer), محیل (Pawky, Sly, Subtle), هوشیار (Alert, Cautious, Conscious, Observant, Sober, Vigilant), ناقلا (Arch, Clever, Rogue, Shrewd, Sly), زیرک (Acute, Adroit, Agile, Alert, Brilliant, Cagey, Canny, Clever, Cunning, Gash, Keen, Perspicacious, Sagacious, Sharp, Shrewd, Smart, Subtle, Uncanny), دقیق (Accurate, Astringent, Exquisite, Literal, Particular, Precise, Precision, Punctilious, Punctual, Scholastic, Scrutinizer, Set, Sound, Stringent, Subtle, Tender, Tenuous, Watchful, Wistful), دانا (Sagacious, Sage, Savant, Spry, Wise). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | teräväjärkinen (acute, keen- witted). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | sagace. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | tiefblickend (perceptive), spitzfindig (acute, captious, captiously, hairsplitting, nit-picking, over-nice, overprecise, oversubtle, quibbling, shrewd, subtle, wiredrawn), schlau (artful, brightly, canny, clever, cleverly, crafty, cunning, cunningly, cute, foxy, leery, neat, neatly, nifty, sharp, shifty, shrewd, shrewdly, slily, sly, slyly, smart, smartly, sneaky, vulpine, vulpinely, wily, wise), scharfsinnig (discerning, discriminate, incisive, lucid, penetrating, penetratingly, penetrative, perceptive, perceptively, perspicacious, profound, sagacious, sagaciously, sharp, sharp witted, sharp-witted, shrewd, shrewdly, subtly), klug (able, astutely, brainy, bright, clever, cleverly, diplomatic, discreet, discreetly, ingenious, intelligent, judicious, judiciously, knowledgable, knowledgeable, politic, prudent, prudently, reasonable, sagacious, sagaciously, sage, sagely, sensible, shrewd, smart, sophisticated, sound, wary, wise, witty). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | καπάτσοσ (plausible, resourceful), πανούργοσ (arch, artful, canny, crafty, cunning, designing, parlous, pawky, sharp, shrewd, sly, slyish, subtile, subtle, vulpine, wily), οξύνουσ (acute, long-headed, percipient, sagacious, sharp-witted, shrewd). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | פקחי (adroit, clever, intelligent, knowing). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | ravasz (acute, artful, be cunning, cagey, cagy, calculating, canny, catchy, colubrine, crafted, crafty, cunning, cute, deep, drafty, draughty, elusive, foxy, gimmicky, guileful, insidious, knowing, leery, pawky, shifty, shrewd, slick, slim, sly, to know how many beans make five, trappy, tricksy, tricky, trigger, vulpine, wily). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | cerdik (artful, canny, cunning, sharp, sharp-eyed, smart, tricky). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | astuto (arch, artful, cagey, canny, crafty, cunning, leery, shrewd, slick, sly, subtle, wily), scaltro (cunning, shrewd, sly), sagace (far sighted, sagacious, shrewd, wise). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 抜け目ない (cunning, shrewd). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ぬけめない (cunning, shrewd). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 기민한 (shrewd, SMART). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | kioot (acute, canny, clever, crafty, fly, foxy, intelligent, keen-witted, quick-witted, shrewd, smart, wily), geyre-chooishagh (alert, discriminating, sharp-witted, shrewd, subtle). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | slu, gløgg (acute). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | astuteay astuto (acute, adroit, arch, artful, astucious, canny, clearheaded, clever, crafty, cunning, designing, guileful, jesuitic, jesuitical, leery, longheaded, machiavellian, perspicacious, sharp, shifty, shrewd, sly, smart, sophisticated, subtil, subtile, subtle, tricksy, tricky, vulpine, wily). (various references) ascuţit la minte, abil (adroit, apt, artful, artistic, artistical, clean, clever, competent, crafty, cunning, deep, deft, dexterous, fit, handy, industrious, knowing, natty, qualified, ready, resourceful, sharp, shifty, skilful, skilfully, skilled, skillful, skillfully, sly, smart, subtle, swift-handed, versatile), viclean (arch, artful, cagey, catlike, catty, crafty, cunning, cute, deceitful, downy, foxy, guileful, leery, pawky, quick-witted, shifty, sly, slyly, subtle, wily), pãtrunzãtor (acute, clear, clear-sighted, comprehensive, deep, deeply, discerning, harsh, high pitched, in-going, keen, loud, Parky, penetrating, perspicacious, piercing, quick, rich, sagacious, screaming, searching, sharp, shrewd, shrill, strident, subtle, thrilling, touching), şmecher (acute, arch, artful, canny, catchy, clever, crafty, cunning, cute, deep, dodger, downy, leery, sharp, shaver, shifty, slick, slippery, sly, slyboots, wise guy). (various references) проницательный (acute, as sharp as a needle, clear-sighted, discerning, eagle-eyed, keen, long-headed, penetrating, perspicacious, piercing, politic, prescient, sagacious, shrewd). (various references) mudar (canny, discerning, oracular, politic, sagacious, sage, sapient, well advised, wise), lukav (arch, artful, cagey, cagy, canny, captious, crafty, cunning, designing, insidious, leery, perfidious, shrewd, sleeky, sly, tricky, vulpine, wily). (various references) perspicaz (acute, clear-sighted, discerning, discriminating, judicious, keen, observant, penetrating, perceptive, perceptual, percipient, perspicacious, quick-sighted, sharp, sharp witted, sharp-eyed, sharp-sighted, sharp-witted, shrewd, subtle), astuto (artful, cannie, canny, clever, colic, crafty, cunning, deep, devious, dodgy, foxy, guileful, insidious, knowing, leery, malicious, mischievous, nasty, pawky, politic, sharp, shifty, sleeky, slick, sly, smart, tricky, vicious, wide, wily, worldly wise). (various references) slug (artful, cagey, canny, clever, crafty, cunning, designing, foxy, knowing, leery, sharp, shifty, shrewd, sly, smart, tricky, wily), skarpsinnig (acuate, acute, discerning, discriminating, discriminative, discriminatory, infenious, keen, long-headed, penetrating, penetrative, perspicacious, sagacious, sharp-witted). (various references) akıllı (all there, brainy, clever, cute, intelligent, knowing, knowledgeable, longheaded, reasonable, sagacious, sage, sapient, sensible, smart, sparkling, spiritual, understanding, well advised, wise), açıkgöz (alert, canny, cunning, fly, heady, hip, knowing, leery, nimble, open-eyed, sharp, shrewd, smart, spry, up and coming, vigilant, wide awake), zeki (apt, as fresh as paint, brainy, bright, brilliant, clear, clever, cute, discerning, ingenious, intellectual, intelligent, keen, keen-witted, longheaded, luminous, neat, nifty, nimble-witted, penetrating, penetrative, perceptional, perspicacious, quick of comprehension, quick on the trigger, quick-witted, sapient, sharp, sharp-witted, shrewd, smart, sparkling, spiritual, subtile, subtle, understanding), kurnaz (arch, artful, cagey, calculating, canny, cattish, catty, coon, crafty, cunning, cute, designing, dodger, dodgy, downy, feline, Fox, foxy, hard boiled, heady, knowing, leery, politic, quirky, roguish, serpentine, sharp, shifty, shrewd, slick, slim, sly, sly old fox, slyboots, smart, subtile, tricky, vulpine, weasel, wheeler dealer, wide awake, wily, wise guy), cin gibi (arch, as fresh as paint, clever, elfin, elvish, gnomish, impish, puckish, quick-witted, sharp-witted, shrewd, wide awake). (various references) хитрий (arch, argute, artful, canny, cattish, crafty, cunning, devious, doleful, enterprising, foxy, hard-headed, leery, pawky, shifting, shrewd, sly, tricky, wide, wily), підступний (cattish, crafty, cunning, dastardly, guileful, insidious, jesuitic, jesuitical, serpentine, skittish, sly, treacherous, vulpine, wily, witty), проникливий (acute, cute, discerning, eagle-eyed, gleg, penetrative, perceptive, perspicacious, politic, profound, quick-sighted, sagacious, sharp-sighted, shrewd). (various references) tinh ranh (dodgy), tinh khôn láu, sắc sảo (cute, salt), mánh khoé (craft, fetch, finesse, trick, wangle). (various references) glew (brave, daring), cyfrwys (artful, cunning), craff (acute, close, grip, hold, keen, sagacious), call (rational, sensible, wise). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | astuti, astutior, astutus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "astute": astutely, astuteness, astutenesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Astute" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: adstitit, asstute, Assyut, astete, astuce, astude, asture, astutes, astuye, atete, Atsabe, atue, Austoft, estute, Masutti, satute, stute. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "astute" (pronounced ustuw"t) |
| 3 | -t uw" t | toot. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: statue. | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-s-t-t-u" | |
-1 letter: saute, state, sutta, taste, tates, tauts, teats, testa. | |
-2 letters: ates, east, eats, etas, sate, seat, seta, sett, stat, stet, suet, tate, tats, taus, taut, teas, teat, test, tets, tuts, utas. | |
-3 letters: ate, att, eat, eau, eta, sae, sat, sau, sea, set, sue, tae, tas, tat, tau, tea, tet, tut, use, uta, uts. | |
-4 letters: ae. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-s-t-t-u" | |
+1 letter: acutest, attunes, battues, mutates, nutates, outeats, scutate, situate, statued, statues, stature, statute, tautens, tautest, tetanus, unstate, upstate. | |
+2 letters: abutters, actuates, astutely, cuttages, eustatic, gauntest, lustrate, maturest, nutmeats, outcaste, outdates, outfeast, outrates, outskate, outstare, outstate, outtakes, outwaste, quartets, saturate, situated, situates, squatted, squatter, stakeout, statures, statuses, statutes, substate, takeouts, tartufes, tasteful, taunters, tautness, toluates, tuateras, tutelars, unstated, unstates, untasted, upstater, upstates, ustulate. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Abbreviations 11. Acronyms 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.