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

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

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.

Example Sentences

Didactic as it is, “One Way or Another” can be taken for socialist realism, but if so, it is a highly original and even critical variant.

From New York Times • Jul. 6, 2022

Didactic /dīˈdaktik/ adjective: in the manner of a teacher, particularly so as to treat someone in a patronizing way.

From Time • Jul. 27, 2015

The first, “The Hidden World: Jim Shaw Didactic Art Collection,” was to have opened this spring but will likely be postponed until next year.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2015

Didactic Whatever its merits, Uncle Boonmee is sure to benefit from the international exposure a Palme d'Or automatically generates.

From BBC • May 24, 2010

Didactic discourses, at least at first, are far from being interesting to them.

From Thoughts on the Religious Instruction of the Negroes of this Country by Plumer, William Swan