educated
Americanadjective
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having undergone education.
educated people.
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characterized by or displaying qualities of culture and learning.
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based on some information or experience.
an educated estimate of next year's sales.
adjective
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having an education, esp a good one
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displaying culture, taste, and knowledge; cultivated
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(prenominal) based on experience or information (esp in the phrase an educated guess )
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of educated
Explanation
If you're educated, you've been to school or college, or otherwise been instructed or trained. Using long, fancy words will either make people think you're educated or that you're a show-off. When you make an educated decision about something, you've learned about the subject before making up your mind — you've been educated or educated yourself, and you understand it completely. An educated conversation or debate about a topic is one in which both sides have knowledge about the issues. Educated comes from educate, with its Latin root, educare, which means both "educate" and "bring up or rear children."
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.
The result of a college education is increasingly a poorly educated, unattractive potential employee.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026
For example, the report found that in low- and middle-income countries, less educated populations suffered higher rates of hypertension and diabetes.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026
"I didn't see the importance of it. Training came first and I think we weren't educated enough in how important fuelling was," he tells BBC Sport.
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026
Hominin fossils are so rare that generally the differences between them are huge, and researchers are left to make educated guesses regarding what existed in the missing parts of the fossil record.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
In the crowd, more people were agreeing with the educated man.
From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
