mathematician
Americannoun
-
mathematicians
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mathematician
First recorded in 1400–50, mathematician is from the late Middle English word mathematicion. See mathematics, -ian
Explanation
Use the noun mathematician when you talk about someone who is highly educated in — and good at — math. Your math teacher might be a great mathematician who's also gifted at explaining math to students. You can call a person who does math for a living a mathematician, like a math professor or someone who works in statistics or as an actuary. Actually, anyone who has great skill at mathematics is also a mathematician, even if they work as a chef or a taxi driver. The word mathematician is rooted in the Greek mathematikos, which means "relating to mathematics, or scientific," or simply "disposed to learn."
Vocabulary lists containing mathematician
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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:
The man widely considered the world’s pre-eminent mathematician still believes in the value of AI models.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
Tristan Buckmaster, a mathematics professor at New York University, said on Tuesday, external that he and Levent Alpöge, a mathematician working for OpenAI rival Anthropic, had also been working toward solutions for the problem.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
The Hindenburg Omen was developed by Jim Miekka, a mathematician and market analyst, back in 1995.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Recent examples include OpenAI’s disproof of the unit distance conjecture, and the proof of Erdős’ problem 1196 by Liam Price, a 23-year-old amateur mathematician.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
In 1909, a young mathematician named Ronald Fisher entered Caius College in Cambridge.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Even though mathematicians had suspected this almost never happens for typical problems, they had never fully proven it—until Urschel did.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
“We want mathematicians to be at the center of shaping the answers.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
The announcement was a shock to many mathematicians and generated much soul-searching.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Even so, ITPs remained unpopular with practicing mathematicians.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
As mathematicians were uncovering the connection between zero and infinity, physicists began to encounter zeros in the natural world; zero crossed over from mathematics to physics.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
