mathematician

American  

[math-uh-muh-tish-uhn] / ˌmæθ ə məˈtɪʃ ən /

noun

• mathematicians
  plural

1. an expert or specialist in mathematics.

---

mathematician British  

/ ˌmæθəməˈtɪʃən, ˌmæθmə- /

noun

1. an expert or specialist in mathematics

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonmathematician
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• mathematicians
  plural

---

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mathematician mathematicians

He formed an independent team with Levent Alpöge, a mathematician employed by day by the rival company Anthropic.

From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026

Named after Lord Kelvin, the mathematician who discovered them in the late 19th century, these waves don’t roll and crash along the shore like a tsunami or hurricane.

From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2026

For Francois Charles, mathematician and department head at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, two separate issues are playing out.

From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026

Along the way, the company scooped New York University mathematician Tristan Buckmaster and his collaborators, who were closing in on a solution.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Though Newton broke some very important mathematical rules by toying with the powers of zero and infinity, calculus was so powerful that no mathematician could reject it.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

Tell that to a generation of mathematicians and computer engineers, who may find themselves threatened.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026

This major American patron of mathematics announced last week a $15-million programme co-funded by OpenAI and Anthropic to support mathematicians in dealing with AI.

From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026

Mallat also noted mathematicians are needed for teaching, although the rapid advancement of AI will impact this area too.

From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026

Urschel’s paper, titled “On the Growth Factor of Random Matrices,” is one in a deluge of AI-assisted proofs that mathematicians have achieved in this new era when they can combine their genius with supercomputing power.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Colin Maclaurin and Brook Taylor, perhaps the best British mathematicians in the era of isolation from the Continent, discovered how to use calculus to rewrite functions in a totally different form.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---