dilettante
Americannoun
-
dilettantes,
plural
-
dilettanti
plural
-
a person who takes up an art, activity, or subject merely for amusement, especially in a desultory or superficial way; dabbler.
- Synonyms:
- amateur
-
a lover of an art or science, especially of a fine art.
adjective
noun
-
a person whose interest in a subject is superficial rather than professional
-
a person who loves the arts
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dilettante
1725–35; < Italian, noun use of present participle of dilettare < Latin dēlectāre to delight
Explanation
Though dilettante might sound like a nice French word, don't use it on your friend who thinks he can play the guitar after several short lessons. A dilettante is an amateur, often one who pretends to be very knowledgeable. The meaning of dilettante has changed since it was borrowed from the Italian in the mid 1700s. Originally, it meant "lover of the arts," but began to take on a negative slant as the idea of doing something as a professional took hold strongly during the 18th century. A dilettante was a mere lover of art as opposed to one who did it professionally. Today, the word implies you're pretending to be more of an artist than you're interested in or capable of being, so if you call your friend who likes to paint a dilettante, it's like you're calling him or her a poser.
Vocabulary lists containing dilettante
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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.
See Examples For:
Others see a dilettante who benefited from family money as he moved through his 20s and 30s, all while creating a cache of disquieting social-media posts that have become fodder for his opponents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
And he has often been underestimated, such as when he won a majority government in 2015 at the age of 44, despite being portrayed by his political opponents as something of a dilettante.
From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2024
Crystal does fine in this environment; he doesn’t come off as a tourist or a dilettante.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2024
Kenner has described the hip-hop star as a naive amateur diplomat — a dilettante, not a criminal.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 31, 2023
Nevertheless, several accomplished alpinists not on her team regarded Pittman as a grandstanding dilettante.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Him and all the other dilettantes who don’t know the wonders of VistaVision.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2025
Today, however, people engaged in the serious craft of politics are understandably uninterested in the work of dilettantes who dabble at politics to the detriment of their vocation.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 7, 2022
She and Steven Weber play Debbie and Stew Klein, a couple of boomer dilettantes who crash their kid’s married life with the news that they’re in debt.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2020
Rabid Stranger Things fans, rabid Stranger Things dilettantes, and rabid Stranger Things newbies alike have a lot to look forward to, assuming they develop a cure for rabies before Stranger Things returns sometime in 2019.
From Slate ● Dec. 10, 2018
‘There were no scientists in Stuart England,’ we are told, ‘and all the men we have grouped together under that heading were in their varying degrees dilettantes.’
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The directors are just so many dilettanti who don't know their job.
From Time Magazine Archive
This kind of heroic misinformation provoked some murmuring from English dilettanti who, arriving in Rome armed with nothing but their recollections of Piranesi's engravings, were disappointed by the city.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some of the finest early lithographs were by French dilettanti whose names have not transpired.
From Time Magazine Archive
Farming is usually a very costly taste for dilettanti.
From Erlach Court by Ossip Schubin
He is describing a picture sale attended by the dilettanti.
From Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 2/2 A Romance of Real Life by James Payn
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.
