dilettante
Americannoun
-
dilettantes,
plural
-
dilettanti
plural
-
a person who takes up an art, activity, or subject merely for amusement, especially in a desultory or superficial way; dabbler.
- Synonyms:
- amateur
-
a lover of an art or science, especially of a fine art.
adjective
noun
-
a person whose interest in a subject is superficial rather than professional
-
a person who loves the arts
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dilettante
1725–35; < Italian, noun use of present participle of dilettare < Latin dēlectāre to delight
Explanation
Though dilettante might sound like a nice French word, don't use it on your friend who thinks he can play the guitar after several short lessons. A dilettante is an amateur, often one who pretends to be very knowledgeable. The meaning of dilettante has changed since it was borrowed from the Italian in the mid 1700s. Originally, it meant "lover of the arts," but began to take on a negative slant as the idea of doing something as a professional took hold strongly during the 18th century. A dilettante was a mere lover of art as opposed to one who did it professionally. Today, the word implies you're pretending to be more of an artist than you're interested in or capable of being, so if you call your friend who likes to paint a dilettante, it's like you're calling him or her a poser.
Vocabulary lists containing dilettante
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
100 Words to Make You Sound Smart
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
See Examples For:
“I’m not coming at this like some kind of social dilettante billionaire who thinks he’s God’s gift,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
The reason for its omission, one assumes, was the likely conclusion by the editors that Maugham was but a dilettante, not an expert, who believed that Zurbarán “was no genius.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
And he has often been underestimated, such as when he won a majority government in 2015 at the age of 44, despite being portrayed by his political opponents as something of a dilettante.
From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2024
Growing up, the conductor Maxime Pascal was a self-identified musical dilettante.
From New York Times ● Aug. 16, 2023
Charles wasn’t a dilettante; he was serious about the breeding and created his own new lines of pigeons.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
Him and all the other dilettantes who don’t know the wonders of VistaVision.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2025
She and Steven Weber play Debbie and Stew Klein, a couple of boomer dilettantes who crash their kid’s married life with the news that they’re in debt.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2020
What this means in practice is that all of us are Olympics dilettantes.
From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2018
They got labelled as bandwagon-jumping dilettantes, a state of affairs not helped by their manager Tony Secunda’s penchant for headline-grabbing publicity stunts.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 8, 2016
‘There were no scientists in Stuart England,’ we are told, ‘and all the men we have grouped together under that heading were in their varying degrees dilettantes.’
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
This kind of heroic misinformation provoked some murmuring from English dilettanti who, arriving in Rome armed with nothing but their recollections of Piranesi's engravings, were disappointed by the city.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some of the finest early lithographs were by French dilettanti whose names have not transpired.
From Time Magazine Archive
The directors are just so many dilettanti who don't know their job.
From Time Magazine Archive
On page 331, "dillettanti" was replaced with "dilettanti."
From An Introduction to the History of Japan by Katsuro Hara
Think of that ye dilettanti who are so proud of your pictures and marbles!
From Violins and Violin Makers Biographical Dictionary of the Great Italian Artistes, their Followers and Imitators, to the present time. With Essays on Important Subjects Connected with the Violin. by J. H. (Joseph Henry) Pearce
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.
