mathematician

American  

[math-uh-muh-tish-uhn] / ˌmæθ ə məˈtɪʃ ən /

noun

1. an expert or specialist in mathematics.

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mathematician British  

/ ˌmæθəməˈtɪʃən, ˌmæθmə- /

noun

1. an expert or specialist in mathematics

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Other Word Forms

• nonmathematician noun

Etymology

Origin of mathematician

First recorded in 1400–50, mathematician is from the late Middle English word mathematicion. See mathematics, -ian

Explanation

Use the noun mathematician when you talk about someone who is highly educated in — and good at — math. Your math teacher might be a great mathematician who's also gifted at explaining math to students. You can call a person who does math for a living a mathematician, like a math professor or someone who works in statistics or as an actuary. Actually, anyone who has great skill at mathematics is also a mathematician, even if they work as a chef or a taxi driver. The word mathematician is rooted in the Greek mathematikos, which means "relating to mathematics, or scientific," or simply "disposed to learn."

Example Sentences

Overdeck, a mathematician, and Siegel, a computer scientist, met while working at quant hedge-fund pioneer D.E.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

Sharp, who worked at the Greenwich Royal Observatory and has a crater on the moon named after him, was also a mathematician who calculated pi to 72 decimal places.

From BBC • Apr. 1, 2026

The explanation traces back to work by the French mathematician Gaston Floquet, who showed in the 19th century that systems exposed to periodic forces can develop entirely new oscillation states.

From Science Daily • Mar. 27, 2026

We ran our findings and methodology by Phil Neff, a researcher at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights and Joseph Gunther, a mathematician who researches immigration-related datasets and former ICE officials.

From Salon • Mar. 24, 2026

And suddenly I found myself a research mathematician!

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson