cognoscenti
Americanplural noun
-
cognoscente
singular
plural noun
Etymology
Origin of cognoscenti
1770–80; < Italian, Latinized variant of conoscente (present participle of conoscere to know) < L. See cognition, -ent
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:
It was designed by Pininfarina with bodywork by Scaglietti, both names immediately recognizable to Ferrari cognoscenti.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
The curling cognoscenti reckon six wins in the nine round-robin games could be enough to earn a place in Monday's last four, and the GB duo are well on the way.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026
As with previous events at LA-LA Land, the opening attracted rockers, drag queens and club world cognoscenti.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026
When 23-year-old vocalist Samara Joy wowed the crowd at Seattle’s Jazz Alley last June, she was not widely known beyond the jazz cognoscenti.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 14, 2023
"Are you of the cognoscenti?" asked Faith Loveman of Warble.
From Ptomaine Street by Carolyn Wells
But if you’re a pizza cognoscente, or even a bread baker, you’ll recognize that this tomato pie is the work of cooks who are punctilious about their dough.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 3, 2023
“For the past 35 years, I have been focused, singularly, on becoming a cognoscente, on knowing everything possible about the classical arts,” Munday said.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 27, 2019
Liz Goldwyn is, in fact, a film-world royal — her grandfather was the Hollywood kingpin Samuel Goldwyn — not to mention a fashion-world darling and an art-world cognoscente.
From New York Times ● Jan. 12, 2014
Whether it's intuition or a great eye, her ability to connect with her buyer--generally a fashion cognoscente with a taste for understated glamour--appears to be unerring.
From Time Magazine Archive
He was one of those trim and proper creatures that seemed to haunt Wordsworth societies, welfare meetings, and other culture areas known only to the cognoscente and stern-eyed Eastern aunts.
From Bat Wing Bowles by Dane Coolidge
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.
