didactic
Americanadjective
-
intended for instruction; instructive.
didactic poetry.
-
inclined to teach or lecture others too much.
a boring, didactic speaker.
- Synonyms:
- pedagogical, donnish, preachy, pedantic
-
teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson.
-
(used with a singular verb) didactics, the art or science of teaching.
adjective
-
intended to instruct, esp excessively
-
morally instructive; improving
-
(of works of art or literature) containing a political or moral message to which aesthetic considerations are subordinated
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of didactic
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
Explanation
When people are didactic, they're teaching or instructing. This word is often used negatively for when someone is acting too much like a teacher. When you're didactic, you're trying to teach something. Just about everything teachers do is didactic: the same is true of coaches and mentors. Didactic is often used in a negative way. If you heard that a movie is overly didactic, that's probably not good. Most people want to see a story and be entertained when going to the movies, and if it feels like the movie is just telling you what to think, that's didactic in a bad way.
Vocabulary lists containing didactic
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Grade 11, List 1
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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.
Determining how much didactic information is insightful and sufficient, and how much constitutes excessive artsplaining, is a delicate, ongoing challenge for museums.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
Other somewhat more didactic or exposition-heavy passages include a professor giving a brief lecture about the persistent and pernicious British class system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2025
The star went on to admit that during that period of time she "might have got a little didactic about it."
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2025
“Once you get didactic, that’s it. You’ve lost them.”
From Salon ● Oct. 6, 2024
Then he continued with his discussion in the same didactic tone as before.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
