worldly wisdom
Practical life knowledge
Worldly wisdom is practical knowledge gained from experience rather than books or formal education.
It encompasses shrewdness about human nature, social dynamics, and how things actually work—the kind of understanding that helps someone navigate real situations effectively.
A person with worldly wisdom knows when to speak and when to stay silent, how to read a room, and what motivates people.
The term can carry slight disapproval when contrasted with spiritual or moral wisdom: He had worldly wisdom but lacked genuine virtue.
- savvyPractical shrewdness
- street smartsPractical urban knowledge
- streetwiseShrewd from urban experience
- school of hard knocksEducation through suffering
- pragmaticFocused on workable solutions
shrewd · cunning · experience · life lessons · practical · cynical · knowing · jaded · seasoned · old hand · sophisticated · realist · hardnosed · calculating · worldview · maturity · disillusionment · eyes wide open
- folk wisdomproverb, folklore, folk sayings, saying, proverbs
- sayingssayings, saying, proverb, proverbs, adage
- wisdomsagacity, sapience, discernment, insight, prudence
- wisdom sayingsproverbs, sayings, adages, maxims, aphorisms
- judgmentgood judgment, sound judgment, discernment, prudence, judiciousness
- Reflections and Maximsaphorisms, maxims, epigrams, proverbs, sayings
worldly wisdombook learning
Knowledge from study
abstract reasoning · formal education · armchair philosophy · classroom learning · scholasticism
worldly wisdomnaivety
Innocent lack of experience
innocence · naïveté · unworldliness · inexperience · guilelessness
worldly wisdomspiritual wisdom
Sacred knowledge of existence
divine wisdom · otherworldliness · unworldliness · sacred knowledge · eternal truth
world, worldly, wisdom, wisely, wisest, unwise, wizard, wittily