prodigy
Americannoun
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prodigies
plural
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a person, especially a child or young person, having extraordinary talent or ability.
a musical prodigy.
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a marvelous example (usually followed byof ).
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something wonderful or marvelous; a wonder.
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something abnormal or monstrous.
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Archaic. something extraordinary regarded as of prophetic significance.
noun
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a person, esp a child, of unusual or marvellous talents
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anything that is a cause of wonder and amazement
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something monstrous or abnormal
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an archaic word for omen
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of prodigy
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English prodige, from Latin prōdigium “prophetic sign”
Explanation
A prodigy is someone who is so naturally talented at something that they become a master of that particular skill as a child — you can be a musical prodigy or a math prodigy. Mozart was one, writing symphonies and playing for kings when he was only five years old. Prodigy is one of those wonderful words whose different meanings tell a story about how the meanings of words bloom over time. The word derives from the Latin prodigium, meaning "an omen or a sign of something to come." Prodigies are kids who often seem so talented that their success must presage even greater mastery, though, of course, the irony is that most prodigies peak in their youth.
Vocabulary lists containing prodigy
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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:
Villalobos met him thinking the 14-year-old prodigy he was trying to recruit to his agency would have the same outgoing personality off the court that he did on it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
Overdeck, a math prodigy who once worked at Amazon as Jeff Bezos’ technical assistant, and Siegel, a computer scientist with a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, co-founded Two Sigma in 2001.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
Zverev has done exactly that to record the greatest season of a career which had threatened to fall short of the lofty expectations placed on him since he emerged as a teenage prodigy.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
Though she, too, is a brilliant musician, the novel depicts her primarily as “a prodigy in living.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Two or three months had gone by without any mention of my being a prodigy again.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
He imagined a long-term couple, two former child prodigies who had grown up and were now living unremarkable lives.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
Born in 1925, Slenczynska was heralded one of the greatest child prodigies since Mozart.
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026
Figure skating officials slammed the door on future 15-year-old prodigies, instituting a minimum age requirement of 17 for senior competition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026
Estevao scored a breathtaking solo Champions League goal to win the battle of the teenage prodigies against Lamine Yamal on Tuesday as Chelsea humbled 10-man Barcelona 3-0.
From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025
And then they taped all six preliminary rounds of the show in one day, pausing to change the prodigies into new outfits.
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
