erudition
Americannoun
Usage
What is erudition? Erudition is knowledge obtained through study or research, as in Students gain erudition through reading and studying. Erudition is similar to such words as knowledge, learning, or scholarship. However, erudition is often used to mean that a person specifically acquired some kind of profound knowledge by extensively reading books, researching reports, or studying manuscripts. For this reason, erudition is typically used to refer to knowledge of topics such as theology or linguistics rather than math or physical sciences. Erudition comes from the adjective erudite, which describes something that is full of knowledge or that is scholarly. Example: The monk was known for his wisdom and erudition, having read every book in the monastery’s 1,000-year-old library.
Synonym Usage
See learning.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of erudition
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin ērudītiōn- (stem of ērudītiō ) “an instruction.” See erudite, -ion
Explanation
If you've read shelves of thick books, people might describe you as a person of erudition. You might find erudition to be its own reward, but if you can make a career of it, even better! The Latin root of erudition is the verb erudire which means "to teach or train." By showing erudition, you show that you've learned a lot. If you write with erudition, your readers will know that you are a serious scholar, as long as you're not too far over their heads.
Vocabulary lists containing erudition
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
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Great Expectations
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 2
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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.
That kind of cynicism is cheap and facile and masquerades as intelligence and erudition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Begun when Gibbon was 33 in 1770, and published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, Gibbon’s history combines astonishing erudition with endless entertainment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 22, 2025
In the early 20th century, a clergyman named Montague Summers wrote histories of European vampires that displayed his erudition and eccentricity—not least because he was sure that vampires really did exist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2025
David Souter stripped aside the well-maintained fiction that justices are appointed to the Court for their erudition, their intellect, their learnedness, and their reason.
From Salon ● May 16, 2025
There is a big difference between a coherent passage of writing and a flaunting of one’s erudition, a running journal of one’s thoughts, or a published version of one’s notes.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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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.
