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-traydz, 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
Rebecca Miller salvaged the modest furnishings from the studio, including a daybed, a pot-belly wood stove and an old metal office chair that her father, a jack-of-all-trades, insisted on fixing rather than replacing.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 2, 2023
Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
“I’m a little scared of being perceived as a jack of all trades and a master of none,” Sloan admits with a laugh on a recent morning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 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 am a jack of all trades in this position and it's super fun, albeit kind of crazy sometimes.
From Salon ● May 25, 2023
I’m a jack of all trades, so to speak, master of few and so is Perry.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
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
These musical57 jacks-of-all-trades began as accompanists, singing the songs of their master at the castles he visited.
From Woman's Work in Music by Arthur Elson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
