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:
Paul was a jack-of-all-trades and master of many.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
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
To make matters even more difficult, Hulls, a painter, adventurer and itinerant jack-of-all-trades, was not really a writer.
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2024
He was a jack-of-all-trades, breaking the sturdy little cow ponies, treating their injuries and illnesses, trimming their hooves, and bending over an anvil to forge their shoes.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Greek yogurt, at its core, is a jack of all trades.
From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2026
He later relocated to the Luton area for work and described himself as a "jack of all trades, master of none", working in a variety of jobs including at Vauxhall and Luton Airport.
From BBC ● Dec. 28, 2025
The human placenta is a jack of all trades.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 29, 2024
I use my platform to say that people in musical theater are not jack of all trades, master of none.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2023
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
For two days the two jacks-of-all-trades worked at many lines and with many materials before Stevens called a halt.
From Spacehounds of IPC by E. E. (Edward Elmer) Smith
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.
