Sa*gac"i*ty (?), n. [L. sagacitas. See Sagacious.]
The quality of being sagacious; quickness or acuteness of sense perceptions; keenness of discernment or penetration with soundness of judgment; shrewdness.
Some [brutes] show that nice sagacity of smell.
Cowper.
Natural sagacity improved by generous education.
V. Knox.
Syn. -- Penetration; shrewdness; judiciousness. -- Sagacity, Penetration. Penetration enables us to enter into the depths of an abstruse subject, to detect motives, plans, etc. Sagacity adds to penetration a keen, practical judgment, which enables one to guard against the designs of others, and to turn everything to the best possible advantage.
© Webster 1913.