PRUDENCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does prudence mean? 

• PRUDENCE (noun)
  The noun PRUDENCE has 2 senses:

1. discretion in practical affairs

2. knowing how to avoid embarrassment or distress

  Familiarity information: PRUDENCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRUDENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Discretion in practical affairs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("prudence" is a kind of...):

natural virtue ((scholasticism) one of the four virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) derived from nature)

discernment; discretion (the trait of judging wisely and objectively)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "prudence"):

providence (the prudence and care exercised by someone in the management of resources)

frugality; frugalness (prudence in avoiding waste)

Antonym:

imprudence (a lack of caution in practical affairs)

Derivation:

prudential (arising from or characterized by prudence especially in business matters)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Knowing how to avoid embarrassment or distress

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

circumspection; discreetness; discretion; prudence

Context example:

the servants showed great tact and discretion

Hypernyms ("prudence" is a kind of...):

discernment; judgement; judgment; sagaciousness; sagacity (the mental ability to understand and discriminate between relations)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "prudence"):

confidentiality (discretion in keeping secret information)

Derivation:

prudent (careful and sensible; marked by sound judgment)

 Context examples 

But I thought it more consistent with prudence and justice to pass the remainder of my days with my wife and family.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I believe I have been wrong in saying so much, but I hardly know what to do, and on your prudence I have the strongest dependence.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

“With prudence and reasonable care, a young man of fashion can dress upon eight hundred a year,” my uncle answered.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Bless my soul, what unearthly prudence!

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Indignation again prevailed over prudence: I replied sharply, Hitherto I have often omitted to fasten the bolt: I did not think it necessary.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

With such examples before them the wives of the English captains had become as warlike as their mates, and ordered their castles in their absence with the prudence and discipline of veteran seneschals.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I shall do nothing rashly: you know me sufficiently to confide in my prudence and considerateness whenever the safety of others is committed to my care.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I am not speaking of its prudence; merely its probability.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Moreover, I have too good an opinion of Miss Thorpe's prudence to suppose that she would part with one gentleman before the other was secured.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)