These words are comparable in denoting mental qualities that have to do with the ability to understand situations, anticipate consequences and make sound decisions. Wisdom is a broad term, embracing the meaning of all its synonyms in addition to outranking them all in suggesting a are combination of discretion, maturity, keenness of intellect, broad experience, extensive learning, profound thought and compassionate understanding. In its full application, wisdom implies the highest and noblest exercise of all the faculties of the moral nature as well as of the intellect: A great jurist bases his decisions on a wisdom gained from far more than his study of the law.

Sense also is very general in meaning. It can refer to rational perception accompanied by feeling. Used this way, it suggests an intense awareness and realization of the stimuli to which it is responding: a highly developed sense of right and wrong. The word is commonly applied to the ability to act effectively in any given situation. It is very close in this meaning to sagacity , both terms suggesting the kind of knowledge or know-how which is the result of broad experience and the thoughtful evaluation of such experience: a politician who showed good sense in avoiding the mistakes he’d made in a previous campaign; a sagacity that was reflected in all his business dealings. But sagacity is more formal and can suggest also a searching profundity, like wisdom : the old man’s sagacity about the dilemmas of life.

Discernment and discrimination are alike in denoting an analytic ability that allows one to see things clearly. Discernment is applied to the evaluation of character and is concerned with the kind of accuracy of observation that finds the real behind the apparent: With discernment a personnel manager can screen job applicants so as to eliminate bluffers and secure properly qualified and conscientious staff for his firm. In another meaning, discernment can refer to making distinctions; in this usage it suggests the power to recognize quality or worth, as in a work of art: a music critic whose discernment of great talent has been proved time and time again. Discrimination is very closely allied to the second meaning of discernment , denoting an ability to perceive very subtle distinctions, even when they might be blurred to ordinary observation: a chef with such gustatory discrimination that he could recognize any seasoning, no matter how delicate, that had been used in the preparation of a meal.

Judgement is sense applied to the making of decisions, especially correct decisions, and thus it depends to some degree upon the exercise of discernment or discrimination: the dangerous fallibility of a man with a good heart and poor judgement.