shrewdness

English

Etymology

shrewd +‎ -ness

Noun

shrewdness (countable and uncountable, plural shrewdnesses)

1. The quality of being shrewd.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Interview”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 245:

     A man with less worldly shrewdness would never have seen how things really stood; a man with less pliability could never have adapted himself to them. It must always be remembered, that his whole administration was one long struggle: he had to maintain his master on the throne, and himself in the ministry; and this was done by sheer force of talent.

2. An invented collective name for a group of apes.