jack-of-all-trades
noun
a person who is adept at many different kinds of work.
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jack-of-all-trades
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jack of all trades
jack of all tradesnouna person who undertakes many different kinds of work
jack-of-all-trades
American
[jak-uhv-awl-treydz, jak-]
/ ˌdʒæk əvˈɔlˈtreɪdz, ˈdʒæk- /
noun
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jacks-of-all-trades
plural
jack of all trades
British
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of jack-of-all-trades
First recorded in 1610–20
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:
Anunoby had never made an All-Star team, but he was basketball’s ultimate jack-of-all-trades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
He eventually ended up in Florida, where he became a jack-of-all-trades carny and developed a sharp instinct for advance publicity and promotion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2025
Matthew Modine, who acted in “Full Metal Jacket,” remembers perceiving Vitali as kind of an “Igor” figure, a jack-of-all-trades.
From New York Times ● Nov. 29, 2024
“I was actually calling myself a jack-of-all-trades for a long time,” he continues.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2024
Alf was a jack-of-all-trades, carpenter, tinsmith, blacksmith, electrician, plasterer, scissors grinder, and cobbler.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
They described him as "mister fix it" who was a "jack of all trades".
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
Greek yogurt, at its core, is a jack of all trades.
From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2026
“Ethan Hedges, jack of all trades, master of everything,” Aoki said with a laugh.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2025
The human placenta is a jack of all trades.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 29, 2024
He was a jack of all trades who was a master of them, too.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
In other words, some yeasts are jacks-of-all-trades and masters of each.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 2024
One suggests generalists are jacks-of-all-trades but masters of none, meaning they can tolerate a wider range of conditions or food sources but aren't as dominant as a specialist in any specific niche.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 2024
Before the professions of typesetters and pressmen split, most printers were jacks-of-all-trades, completing apprenticeships that required they learn every task in a printing office.
From Economist ● May 23, 2018
My real beef with the Mikes is not that they are “vanilla”, however, but that they are neither experts nor jacks-of-all-trades.
From Golf Digest ● May 17, 2017
And as the law, like any other profession requires jacks-of-all-trades, the firm acquired a certain peculiar professional standing of its own, and enjoyed the good will of the bar as a whole.
From Tutt and Mr. Tutt by Arthur Cheney Train
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.
