savant
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of savant
1710–20; < French: man of learning, scholar, old present participle of savoir to know ≪ Latin sapere to be wise; see sapient
Explanation
You know that girl in your school with a 4.0 GPA? She is a savant in the making. A savant is someone over-the-top smart, a scholar. It might take a savant only five minutes to do an entire math test. Savant is the French word for "learned" and it goes back to the Latin word sapere, "to be wise." In English, a savant can be someone is who is wise and learned in general, or someone who is extremely skilled in a particular area, like your little brother who can rattle off the first three hundred digits of pi.
Vocabulary lists containing savant
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Our Town
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 5
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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.
An Alabama-born engineer seen as a supply-chain savant, Tim Cook took on the daunting challenge of succeeding Apple's iconic boss Steve Jobs 15 years ago.
From Barron's • Apr. 21, 2026
Long Beach’s R&B savant Giveon kept his Coachella stage to a monochrome motif during his sundown set.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026
Young Jim showed an early gift for mathematics that bordered on savant territory.
From MarketWatch • Nov. 15, 2025
Peters is known as a product guru skilled at interpreting data, while Hollywood czar Sarandos is seen as a programming savant.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 1, 2025
She doesn’t say genius, or savant, or prodigy.
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
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.
