cognoscenti
Americanplural noun
singular
cognoscenteplural noun
Etymology
Origin of cognoscenti
1770–80; < Italian, Latinized variant of conoscente (present participle of conoscere to know) < L. See cognition, -ent
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Despite the beacon, only Hanoi’s cà phê cognoscenti seek out this snug shop furnished with four short tables and a small counter.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026
The curling cognoscenti reckon six wins in the nine round-robin games could be enough to earn a place in Monday's last four, and the GB duo are well on the way.
From BBC • Feb. 6, 2026
Mair, Foster Bodorff and three other local tree cognoscenti formed a semicircle around Van Pelt’s Paul Bunyanesque figure, with a bushy beard once bright red turned white.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 1, 2023
The crowd, composed mostly of New York and L.A. rap cognoscenti who had invented or dominated the genre, jeered, nearly heckling Outkast offstage — but not before André reeled off a prophesy.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 7, 2023
If the cognoscenti complained that he had buried the chiaroscurists after da Carpi, he always had the explanation that others did not work in the Italian style, which he neglected to describe.
From John Baptist Jackson 18th-Century Master of the Color Woodcut by Kainen, Jacob
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
