logician
Americannoun
noun
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.
Vocabulary lists containing logician
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.
Mr. Elwes, a mathematical logician and professor at the University of Leeds, enumerates a multitude of such anecdotes—delightful, insightful, informative—to illustrate the bigger picture in “Huge Numbers.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 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
Saul Kripke, a math prodigy and pioneering logician whose revolutionary theories on language qualified him as one of the 20th century’s greatest philosophers, died on Sept. 15 in Plainsboro, N.J.
From New York Times ● Sep. 21, 2022
This logician would be unbearably pedantic, but there is a grain of good taste in the pedantry.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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.
