Advisedness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality of showing good judgment and careful consideration in decisions or actions
2. A state of exercising caution and wisdom in making choices
3. The characteristic of acting with sound judgment and forethought

Etymology: "Advisedness" is a plain compound: the adjective "advised", meaning deliberate or considered, plus the suffix "-ness", which turns an adjective into a noun for a quality. "Advised" itself comes from the verb "advise", so the word describes the state of having been thought through before acting. The suffix is the older and more interesting part. "-ness" descends from an Old English form that was already attached to adjectives to name qualities, as in "goodness" or "kindness," and it has been productive in English ever since. That means "advisedness" could be formed freely by any speaker who wanted a noun for "the quality of being advised," and it entered the language as an ordinary extension of the suffix rather than as a borrowing from another tongue.

Synonyms: wisdom, caution, prudence, sagacity, insight

Antonyms: foolishness, imprudence, carelessness, ignorance, naivety