literati
Americanplural noun
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literatus
singular
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people engaged in literary pursuits, especially professional writers.
The lounge at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City was a well-known haunt of the literati during the 1920s.
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learned people and scholars considered as a class.
university literati in their ivory tower.
plural noun
Etymology
Origin of literati
First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin līterāti, litterāti “learned, liberally educated people,” noun use of plural of līterātus, litterātus; see origin at literate
Explanation
If you're educated and love books, you can describe yourself as being a member of the literati. The literati is a highly intelligent group of bookish people. The literati is a somewhat glamorous group, known for being very smart and well-read. You could include famous authors, editors, poets, critics, and scholars of literature among the collective group known as the literati. The word is the plural form of the Latin literatus, which means "lettered or educated," or literally "one who knows letters." Related words in English include letter and literate.
Vocabulary lists containing literati
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.
See Examples For:
Now, a coalition of legislators, scientists, business owners, artists and Florida literati is—wait for it—wading in.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
She also joined the ranks of a post-pandemic L.A. literati adept at glitzy launch parties and scene-y readings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
In the world of literature, for example, authors who are “othered” outside of the elite literati typically are boxed into othering themselves just to parlay their creativity into a career.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 24, 2023
When East Coast literati ask themselves this question, they often answer: Joan Didion.
From New York Times ● May 17, 2023
He became a distinguished scholar and became noted among the literati of the day.
From The Loyalists of Massachusetts And the Other Side of the American Revolution by James H. Stark
He is still living in Indianapolis, on a street with the glorious name of Meridian, and never was Princeton more conscious of him as her leading literatus.
From Time Magazine Archive
For Mae, who fancies herself no end as a literatus and has always jealously insisted on authoring her own scripts, this time took a tip from Producer Cowan.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had outlived his pre-Civil War hopefulness, but he was still capable only of vague "orbic" statements about the leadership of "the divine literatus," and preached once again "his old back-to-nature illusion."
From Time Magazine Archive
British critics have just discovered "a major dramatist" who turns out to be that old literatus of the libido, David Herbert Lawrence.
From Time Magazine Archive
A simultaneous innovation was the appointment of a Buddhist priest, Bin, and a literatus, Kuromaro, to be "national doctors."
From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by F. (Frank) Brinkley
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.
