Trivia Time

Which type of story is often described as didactic?

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didactic

American  

[dahy-dak-tik] / daɪˈdæk tɪk /

Also didactical

adjective

1. 

   intended for instruction; instructive.

   didactic poetry.

2. inclined to teach or lecture others too much.

   a boring, didactic speaker.

   Synonyms:

   pedagogical, donnish, preachy, pedantic

3. teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson.

4. (used with a singular verb) didactics, the art or science of teaching.

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didactic British  

/ dɪˈdæktɪk /

adjective

1. intended to instruct, esp excessively

2. morally instructive; improving

3. (of works of art or literature) containing a political or moral message to which aesthetic considerations are subordinated

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Other Word Forms

• didacticism
  noun
• nondidactic
  adjective
• undidactic
  adjective
• didactically
  adverb
• nondidactically
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of didactic

First recorded in 1635–45; from Greek didaktikós “apt at teaching, instructive,” from didakt(ós) “that may be taught, teachable” (from didáskein “to teach”) + -ikos -ic

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Explanation

When people are didactic, they're teaching or instructing. This word is often used negatively for when someone is acting too much like a teacher. When you're didactic, you're trying to teach something. Just about everything teachers do is didactic: the same is true of coaches and mentors. Didactic is often used in a negative way. If you heard that a movie is overly didactic, that's probably not good. Most people want to see a story and be entertained when going to the movies, and if it feels like the movie is just telling you what to think, that's didactic in a bad way.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

didactic

“Promising Young Woman” is not a compare-and-contrast film, where overly didactic morality coaching encourages the viewer to say, “Ah, yes, now I understand rape culture.”

From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026

“I Swear” is a didactic starting point, and it may even inspire overcorrection when it comes to educating others, but its heart is in the right place.

From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2026

Davis’ book makes sense of all this without being overly didactic.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2026

Other somewhat more didactic or exposition-heavy passages include a professor giving a brief lecture about the persistent and pernicious British class system.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2025

For the first time in his life, he managed to link those didactic anecdotes with a reality he could see.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende

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