POLITIC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does politic mean? 

• POLITIC (adjective)
  The adjective POLITIC has 2 senses:

1. marked by artful prudence, expedience, and shrewdness

2. smoothly agreeable and courteous with a degree of sophistication

  Familiarity information: POLITIC used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POLITIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by artful prudence, expedience, and shrewdness

Context example:

a shrewd and politic reply

Similar:

expedient (appropriate to a purpose; practical)

sagacious (skillful in statecraft or management)

Also:

diplomatic; diplomatical (using or marked by tact in dealing with sensitive matters or people)

Antonym:

impolitic (not politic)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Smoothly agreeable and courteous with a degree of sophistication

Synonyms:

bland; politic; smooth; suave

Context example:

the manager pacified the customer with a smooth apology for the error

Similar:

diplomatic; diplomatical (using or marked by tact in dealing with sensitive matters or people)

 Context examples 

He learn new social life; new environment of old ways, the politic, the law, the finance, the science, the habit of a new land and a new people who have come to be since he was.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I was ready to sink from fatigue and hunger, but being surrounded by a crowd, I thought it politic to rouse all my strength, that no physical debility might be construed into apprehension or conscious guilt.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)