self-taught

[ self-tawt ]

adjective

1. having become as specified by teaching oneself, without the aid of formal education:

   She’s a self-taught photographer who sells her work online.

2. learned by oneself:

   Particularly impressive is his self-taught mastery of the guitar.

self-taught

adjective

1. having learnt oneself without any external or formal instruction

Word History and Origins

Origin of self-taught¹

First recorded in 1715–25

Example Sentences

Tuchman was often criticized by academicians for being a self-taught historian with only a BA.

From The Daily Beast

The 25-year-old self-taught sewer caters her designs to what her customers want.

From The Daily Beast

Often their religion is self-taught, cherry-picking slogans from the religious texts or, these days, from videos on the Web.

From The Daily Beast

She has a blog, Fox on Stocks, where the self-taught savant holds forth on the ins and outs of the market.

From The Daily Beast

Chen is a self-taught legal advocate but was never allowed to take formal law courses.

From The Daily Beast

In many of his pictures he gives the impression of a self-taught man, who sought to help himself to the best of his power.

From Project Gutenberg

This letter was addressed to one John Smybert, also a self-taught artist.

From Project Gutenberg

With singular good luck he found the means of carrying out his design in a self-taught mechanic, James Brindley.

From Project Gutenberg

His speech was the elaborated and painfully emphasized English of the self-taught East Sider.

From Project Gutenberg

The eight-hour movement drew its inspiration from an economic theory advanced by a self-taught Boston machinist, Ira Steward.

From Project Gutenberg