SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
conventional wisdom
noun
The beliefs or judgments that are widely accepted about a subject.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Widely accepted judgment
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topWidespread acceptance does not by itself establish that conventional wisdom is correct.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See conventional wisdom in use
The experiment encouraged the class to question conventional wisdom about the design.
The school's conventional wisdom held that customers would accept only perfectly symmetrical patterns, a judgment many teachers repeated without fresh examination.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license