If you are prudent, you are sensible and careful, especially when a risk is not worth taking. You look a little way into the future and choose the safer, wiser path — with money, with safety, with a promise, with a big choice. Banks, parents, teachers, and news reports like this word; it sounds more grown-up than “careful,” and it is a compliment. A prudent shopper checks the price. A prudent student does not leave the whole essay until the night before. Though actually, people sometimes use it with a small smile, as if prudent means “a bit dull,” but the core meaning is still “wise about risk,” not “boring.” Do not hear it as prudish: a prudent driver slows down; a prudish person blushes at a love scene. Unrelated words.