educated
Americanadjective
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having undergone education.
educated people.
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characterized by or displaying qualities of culture and learning.
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based on some information or experience.
an educated estimate of next year's sales.
adjective
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having an education, esp a good one
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displaying culture, taste, and knowledge; cultivated
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(prenominal) based on experience or information (esp in the phrase an educated guess )
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of educated
Explanation
If you're educated, you've been to school or college, or otherwise been instructed or trained. Using long, fancy words will either make people think you're educated or that you're a show-off. When you make an educated decision about something, you've learned about the subject before making up your mind — you've been educated or educated yourself, and you understand it completely. An educated conversation or debate about a topic is one in which both sides have knowledge about the issues. Educated comes from educate, with its Latin root, educare, which means both "educate" and "bring up or rear children."
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.
Law students educated in this way will be grounded in ethical and principled reasoning and adept at navigating an era when AI tools stand to shape changes in the practice of their profession.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
Some have suggested that the bearish impact of a declining population can be avoided by an increasing share of women in the workforce and/or an increasingly educated workforce.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
"I have a lot of friends coming from extremely reputable backgrounds, extremely educated people who have applied to over 1,000 jobs, and have been jobless."
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
They take indirect clues—movement, blood flow, skin temperature—and make an educated guess.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
From that point forward, there was a great divide between Stanton, Anthony, and others who backed educated suffrage, and those who supported working for African American suffrage first and female suffrage afterward.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
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.
