mathematician

American  

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

noun

• mathematicians
  plural

1. an expert or specialist in mathematics.

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mathematician British  

/ ˌmæθəməˈtɪʃən, ˌmæθmə- /

noun

1. an expert or specialist in mathematics

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonmathematician
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• mathematicians
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of mathematician

First recorded in 1400–50, mathematician is from the late Middle English word mathematicion. See mathematics, -ian

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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

Lemssouguer, a Moroccan-born mathematician who lives in a 400-year-old Tudor estate outside London and raises rare parrots, is renowned in the rough-and-tumble world of distressed-debt trading for placing bigger-than-usual bets that can move markets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 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

Paul Erdős, the great Hungarian mathematician, left hundreds of problems unsolved when he died.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

The episode earned Mary a reputation as a smart mathematician who might be able to contribute more than just calculations to her new group.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

In densely connected networks, some conventional approaches require what mathematicians call cubic time.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026

The claim is the latest in a string of AI results that have shaken academia, setting off soul-searching, most notably among mathematicians, over the value of human expertise and the future of their profession.

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

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

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026

Announcements over recent months that artificial intelligence models have cracked previously unsolvable problems are shaking to the core top-level mathematicians, who are now asking themselves: where do we come in?

From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026

In fact, in the fifteenth century, artists were amateur mathematicians.

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

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