Noun

Clarity, lucidity, especially in expression; the state or characteristic of being perspicuous.

* 1905 , (George Bernard Shaw), The Irrational Knot , ch. 18,

Whether through the first officer's want of perspicuity or my own stupidity, I was not a bit the wiser for the explanation.

Perspicacity; insight.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=“Well,” I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, “he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one.” ¶ “So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?” ¶ I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity .}}

* 1965 , " The Stupid Spy," Time , 19 Mar,

Thompson, a high school dropout, said with rare perspicuity that he doubted the FBI would hire him.

(rare) Transparency; translucence.

* 1900 , (w), The Touchstone , ch. 11,

It must have been on some such day of harsh sunlight, the incisive February brightness that gives perspicuity without warmth.

Noun

(-)

Acute discernment or understanding; insight.

* 1904 , (Jack London), The Sea-Wolf , ch. 8:

"I understand," I said. "The fact is that you have the money." His face brightened. He seemed pleased at my perspicacity .

The human faculty or power to mentally grasp or understand clearly.

* 1856 , "Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey," The Quarterly Review , vol. 98, p. 458:

His very veneration for his father-in-law, combined as it is with a total want of the most ordinary perspicacity , is an additional disqualification.

* 1888 , "Review of La suggestion mentale'' by H. Bourru and P. Burot," ''The American Journal of Psychology , vol. 1 no. 3, p. 503:

As the former consists in the transmission of psychic states inappreciable to the normal perspicacity or senses, the transfer cannot pass through the medium of intelligence.

(obsolete) Keen eyesight.

* 1833 , John Harrison Curtis, A Treatise on the Physiology and Diseases of the Eye , London, Longman, p. 138:

Attentive consideration of the phenomena of vision has led to the invention of artificial aids by which the sight may be wonderfully strengthened and preserved, and man endowed at once with the perspicacity of the eagle or the minute scrutiny of the insect.