logician

American  

[loh-jish-uhn] / loʊˈdʒɪʃ ən /

noun

1. a person who is skilled in logic.

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logician British  

/ lɒˈdʒɪʃən /

noun

1. a person who specializes in or is skilled at logic

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Etymology

Origin of logician

1350–1400; logic + -ian; replacing Middle English logicien < Middle French

Explanation

Logic is the science of reasoning and relationships between ideas. An expert in logic is a logician. Spock, a Star Trek character, is the ultimate logician — when asked why not, he answers, "Because it isn't logical." A logician examines statements to decide whether they are true and is active in the fields of math and computer science. A very simple example of what a logician does can be given with the word or. What exactly does it mean if you say "A or B?" A logician would say that it can mean: 1. A but not B, 2. B but not A, or 3. A and B (this sounds weird but in logic this is true). Or, however, does not mean "not A and not B." Logicians usually deal with much more complex ideas and statements than this.

Example Sentences

More successfully, in the 19th century, George Boole—mathematician, logician, theoretical psychologist—“fundamentally changed our understanding of logic,” Mr. Griffiths tells us, by “showing how reason could be captured by a formal system.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026

As Bessent should understand, the violation of one logical condition can obviate the logic of another—what a logician might call an “antecedent condition.”

From Barron's • Jan. 22, 2026

Throughout the washes of guffaws, chuckles and hysterics that accompanied Eddie Izzard’s set on Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl, the British comedian, actor, logician and mimic performed gymnastic non-sequitur sequences and nuanced physical comedy.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 7, 2023

A mathematician and logician, Turing was super smart but had difficulty communicating with others.

From Salon • Mar. 26, 2022

And the logician says, “No. There are cows in Scotland of which one at least is brown.”

From "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon