Trivia Time

Which type of story is often described as didactic?

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didactic

American  

[dahy-dak-tik] / daɪˈdæk tɪk /

Also didactical

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.

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didactic British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

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

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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

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

didactic

Given the phrase’s innate poeticism, it’s often used by scholars, authors, casanovas and perhaps overly didactic filmmakers to convey the fleeting intensity of life’s most burning joys.

From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026

There’s a difference between films that pat themselves on the back for their didactic lessons and films that use simple moralistic terms to help as many people understand their messaging as quickly as possible.

From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026

He points to Ari Aster’s small-town social satire “Eddington” as a film that is reflective of its moment without being didactic.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 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

She sent this didactic gem to several markets, but it found no purchaser, and she was inclined to agree with Mr. Dashwood that morals didn’t sell.

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

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