mathematician
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- nonmathematician noun
Etymology
Origin of mathematician
First recorded in 1400–50, mathematician is from the late Middle English word mathematicion. See mathematics, -ian
Explanation
Use the noun mathematician when you talk about someone who is highly educated in — and good at — math. Your math teacher might be a great mathematician who's also gifted at explaining math to students. You can call a person who does math for a living a mathematician, like a math professor or someone who works in statistics or as an actuary. Actually, anyone who has great skill at mathematics is also a mathematician, even if they work as a chef or a taxi driver. The word mathematician is rooted in the Greek mathematikos, which means "relating to mathematics, or scientific," or simply "disposed to learn."
Vocabulary lists containing mathematician
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Katherine Johnson (1918–2020) Tribute List
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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.
Sharp, who worked at the Greenwich Royal Observatory and has a crater on the moon named after him, was also a mathematician who calculated pi to 72 decimal places.
From BBC • Apr. 1, 2026
A team of researchers led by California Institute of Technology computer scientist and mathematician Babak Hassibi says it has created a large language model that radically compresses its size without compromising performance.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026
We ran our findings and methodology by Phil Neff, a researcher at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights and Joseph Gunther, a mathematician who researches immigration-related datasets and former ICE officials.
From Salon • Mar. 24, 2026
Novelist Jane Austen, artist J. M. W. Turner and mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing, are also due to be phased out on the £10, £20 and £50 banknotes respectively as part of a redesign.
From Barron's • Mar. 12, 2026
She had already sent him a link to a biography of Leonhard Euler, an eighteenth-century Swiss mathematician.
From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
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.
