didactic

Also di·dac·ti·cal

[dahy-dak-tik]

adjective

1. intended for instruction; instructive.

   didactic poetry.

2. inclined to teach or lecture others too much.

   a boring, didactic speaker.

   Synonyms: pedagogical, donnish, preachy, pedantic

3. teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson.

4. (used with a singular verb),  didactics, the art or science of teaching.

didactic

/ dɪˈdæktɪk /

adjective

1. intended to instruct, esp excessively

2. morally instructive; improving

3. (of works of art or literature) containing a political or moral message to which aesthetic considerations are subordinated

Other Word Forms

• didactically adverb
• didacticism noun
• nondidactic adjective
• nondidactically adverb
• undidactic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of didactic¹

First recorded in 1635–45; from Greek didaktikós “apt at teaching, instructive,” from didakt(ós) “that may be taught, teachable” (from didáskein “to teach”) + -ikos -ic

Word History and Origins

Origin of didactic¹

C17: from Greek didaktikos skilled in teaching, from didaskein to teach

Example Sentences

We didn’t want to write a didactic book.

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One didactic chapter in “Queen Esther” is called “The History of Abortion in America.”

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The program made the point about the racist subject without being excessively didactic; the one projection was a period drawing of a costumed lady in blackface.

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Other somewhat more didactic or exposition-heavy passages include a professor giving a brief lecture about the persistent and pernicious British class system.

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Here’s where “Ginny & Georgia” might have launched into a didactic, pro-abortion-rights lecture cloaked in a TV drama, or played it safe by pulling back and highlighting both women’s stories in equal measure.

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