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definitions

didactic

[dahy-dak-tik]
adjective
  1. intended for instruction; instructive: didactic poetry.
  2. inclined to teach or lecture others too much: a boring, didactic speaker.
  3. teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson.
  4. didactics, (used with a singular verb) the art or science of teaching.
Also di·dac·ti·cal.

Origin of didactic

1635–45; < Greek didaktikós apt at teaching, instructive, equivalent to didakt(ós) that may be taught + -ikos -ic
Related formsdi·dac·ti·cal·ly, adverbdi·dac·ti·cism, nounnon·di·dac·tic, adjectivenon·di·dac·ti·cal·ly, adverbun·di·dac·tic, adjective

Synonyms for didactic

2. pedantic, preachy, donnish, pedagogic.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for didacticism

Historical Examples of didacticism

  • She poured them forth—little rushing streams of didacticism.

  • Here he found domesticity and didacticism, and put them back.

    The Son of a Servant

    August Strindberg

  • In them Whittier at length succeeds in freeing himself completely from the shackles of didacticism.

    John Greenleaf Whittier

    W. Sloane Kennedy

  • The latter, being partially free from didacticism, leads naturally up to the third period.

    John Greenleaf Whittier

    W. Sloane Kennedy

  • Its didacticism lies so heavily upon it that it has nearly crushed its poetry—like a stone on a flower.

    The Last Harvest

    John Burroughs

British Dictionary definitions for didacticism

didactic

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
Derived Formsdidactically, adverbdidacticism, noun

Word Origin for didactic

C17: from Greek didaktikos skilled in teaching, from didaskein to teach
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for didacticism

didactic

adj.

1650s, from French didactique, from Greek didaktikos "apt at teaching," from didaktos "taught," past participle of didaskein "teach," from PIE root *dens- "wisdom, to teach, learn." Related: Didactically; didacticism.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
didacticism in Medicine

didactic

[dī-dăk′tĭk]
adj.
  1. Of or relating to medical teaching by lectures or textbooks as distinguished from clinical demonstration with patients.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.