autodidact

American  

[aw-toh-dahy-dakt, -dahy-dakt] / ˌɔ toʊˈdaɪ dækt, -daɪˈdækt /

noun

1. a person who has learned a subject without the benefit of a teacher or formal education; a self-taught person.

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autodidact British  

/ ˈɔːtəʊˌdaɪdækt /

noun

1. a person who is self-taught

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Other Word Forms

• autodidactic adjective

Etymology

Origin of autodidact

First recorded in 1525–35; from Greek autodídaktos “self-taught”; auto- ¹, didactic

Example Sentences

He was mid-century America’s foremost tough-hooligan intellectual, a high school dropout and autodidact who wrote and published four books while waiting to die.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 28, 2024

But laws are slow to leave the books, and the Music & Amusement Association needed someone like Sharpe — an autodidact with no financial ties to the industry — to hasten the process.

From Washington Post • Mar. 26, 2023

He was an autodidact who read more than most college professors.

From Salon • Nov. 23, 2022

That means, for instance, it’s possible for an autodidact from outside academia to get time on Webb.

From Scientific American • Jul. 11, 2022

Again I told him I doubted it, but I felt somehow honored to hear the off-kilter theories of this isolated autodidact, because I knew he wouldn’t tell just anyone, especially not COs.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover