polymath
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of polymath
1615–25; < Greek polymathḗs learned, having learned much, equivalent to poly- poly- + -mathēs, adj. derivative of manthánein to learn
Explanation
A polymath is a person who knows a lot about a lot of subjects. If your friend is not only a brilliant physics student but has also published a poetry collection and won prizes at political debates, you can describe her as a polymath. You can think of a polymath as a classic "Renaissance man." Imagine Leonardo da Vinci, for example, who was not only an amazing artist, but also an engineer, inventor, mathematician, and much more. When a person's knowledge covers many different areas, he or she is a polymath. The Greek word for it is polymathes, "having learned much," with poly meaning "much," and manthanein meaning "learn."
Vocabulary lists containing polymath
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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.
Goldsmith's history of combining concepts from disparate scientific fields was recognized in 2022 with a Polymath award from Schmidt Futures.
From Science Daily • May 30, 2024
Moira: Fraudulent Theater Polymath should be the name of a band, or maybe a restaurant.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 24, 2023
For example, Peter Burke’s “The Polymath: A Cultural History From Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag” catalogues men and women who have contributed significant advances to more than one field of knowledge.
From Washington Post • Nov. 17, 2020
Polymath Douglas Hofstadter coined the heartbreaking phrase “soular coronas” to describe our memories of those eclipsed by death.
From Scientific American • Nov. 5, 2020
Polymath and future Nobel laureate Herbert Simon, and computer scientist Allen Newell, favoured the name “complex information processing”.
From Nature • Oct. 1, 2019
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.
