| / English Dictionary |
ACUTENESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The quality of having a sharp edge or point
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("acuteness" is a kind of...):
keenness; sharpness (thinness of edge or fineness of point)
Antonym:
obtuseness (the quality of lacking a sharp edge or point)
Derivation:
acute (ending in a sharp point)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A quick and penetrating intelligence
Example:
I admired the keenness of his mind
Synonyms:
acuity; acuteness; keenness; sharpness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("acuteness" is a kind of...):
intelligence (the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "acuteness"):
steel trap (an acute intelligence (an analogy based on the well-known sharpness of steel traps))
Derivation:
acute (having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A sensitivity that is keen and highly developed
Example:
dogs have a remarkable acuteness of smell
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("acuteness" is a kind of...):
sensibility; sensitiveness; sensitivity ((physiology) responsiveness to external stimuli; the faculty of sensation)
Context examples:
At the time, I set it down to some idiosyncratic, personal distaste, and merely wondered at the acuteness of the symptoms; but I have since had reason to believe the cause to lie much deeper in the nature of man, and to turn on some nobler hinge than the principle of hatred.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
His pleasure in music, though it amounted not to that ecstatic delight which alone could sympathize with her own, was estimable when contrasted against the horrible insensibility of the others; and she was reasonable enough to allow that a man of five and thirty might well have outlived all acuteness of feeling and every exquisite power of enjoyment.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
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