shrewd

shrewd, sagacious, perspicacious, astute can all mean acute in perception and sound in judgment, especially in reference to practical affairs.

Shrewd implies native cleverness, acumen, and an exceptional ability to see below the surface; it often also connotes hardheadedness

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a shrewd bargain

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a shrewd observer

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a shrewd remark

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the shrewd wisdom of an unlettered old woman— Pater

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the hard mind of a shrewd small-town boy, the kind of boy who knows you have a real cigar only when you are the biggest man in town— Mailer

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she had had a mania for buying and selling land, and was a shrewd judge of values— Wolfe

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Sagacious is usually applied to persons or their decisions, their judgments, and their methods of pursuing their ends; it stresses penetration, discernment, judiciousness, and often, farsightedness

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the auctioneer, a small sagacious individual . . . , was directing his two blue-jowled assistants in the business of displaying to their best advantage the remaining pieces— Wylie

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he left an estate of approximately $172,000, accumulated through sagacious investments— Dilliard

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Perspicacious is applied chiefly to mental sight or insight and suggests unusual power to see through and to understand what is dark, hidden, mysterious, or puzzling

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a perspicacious reader of character

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a perspicacious critic

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we must make allowance also for those blind spots which are found in the most perspicacious mortals— L. P. Smith

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some perspicacious manufacturer of another product . . . beat the rap the same way— Ace

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it occurred to the perspicacious reddleman that he would have acted more wisely by appearing less unimpressionable— Hardy

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Astute implies a combination of shrewdness and perspicacity and often, in addition, connotes an ability to keep one's counsel or an incapacity for being fooled, especially where one's own interests are concerned

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savages . . . are often as . . . astute socially as trained diplomatists— James

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the man who can make millions by an astute business deal— Hobson

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Astute, opprobriously used, heightens the suggestion, sometimes present in perspicacious, of artfulness, diplomacy, or craft. It may connote merely shrewd discernment and sagacity

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I have described above our low-caliber presidents—they, too, are more or less astute party hacks— Edmund Wilson

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Analogous words: knowing, *intelligent, smart, clever, quick-witted: politic, diplomatic, smooth (see SUAVE): *wise, prudent, sensible, judicious: penetrating, piercing, probing (see ENTER): *sharp, keen, acute