amanuensis
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of amanuensis
1610–20; < Latin ( servus ) āmanuēnsis, equivalent to ā- a- 4 + manu-, stem of manus hand + -ēnsis -ensis
Explanation
An amanuensis is someone who is good at taking notes when someone else is talking, like a stenographer or an administrative assistant. In Latin, the word amanuensis literally means "a servant from the hand." The word generally refers to a person who is skilled at taking dictation. In a courtroom, you might see a stenographer quickly typing up what everyone in the room is saying. A stenographer is an amanuensis. Anyone who can copy or write down what someone else is saying is considered an amanuensis. So if you've ever taken good notes in class, then you're an amanuensis!
Vocabulary lists containing amanuensis
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Song of Solomon
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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:
Anthony never married, and she considered herself to some degree Stanton’s amanuensis, confiding to an intimate that she felt that her best work had been “making the way clear” for her friend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
In later years, with Mr. Merwin’s eyesight failing, Paula Merwin became his amanuensis, taking down new poems at his dictation.
From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2019
Dazzled by Kubrick, Vitali largely lost interest in acting and instead became Kubrick’s amanuensis, performing unsung tasks on The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 27, 2018
After her mother died, of Lou Gehrig’s disease, in 1997, she wrote a play called “The Emperor and the Scribe,” about a dying African ruler and his amanuensis.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 20, 2017
“The sextet of Robert Frobisher. He was an amanuensis for my father, when my father was too old, too blind, too weak to hold a pen.”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Further complications ensue when the maestro and the diva fall in love with their amanuenses.
From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 2014
He appears to have kept amanuenses to copy interesting manuscripts.
From Sir Walter Ralegh A Biography by Stebbing, W. (William)
A sister from our House, your grandmother urged, would be the very person you needed, and infinitely better suited to the position than the somewhat frivolous young women who very often occupy positions as amanuenses.
From The House of Martha by Stockton, Frank Richard
He was nearly blind, and had to teach himself Spanish and look up authorities through the help of others, and to write with a noctograph or by amanuenses.
From Initial Studies in American Letters by Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)
Most of the money he received for the work went to pay his six amanuenses.
From McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader by McGuffey, William Holmes
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.
