Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Acuteness of vision or perception; keenness.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Sharpness; acuteness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Sharpness or acuteness, as of a needle, wit, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Sharpness or acuteness, as of a needle, wit, etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a quick and penetrating intelligence
  • noun sharpness of vision; the visual ability to resolve fine detail (usually measured by a Snellen chart)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English acuite, from Old French, ultimately from Latin acūtus, sharp; see acute.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French acuité, from Medieval Latin acuitas, irreg., from Latin acuō ("sharpen").

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Examples

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  • It was the precise photographic picture of that other room. Everything in it rose before him and pressed itself upon his vision with the same acuity of distinctness as the objects surrounding him.

    - Edith Wharton, The Reef

    June 18, 2008