pedagogue
Americannoun
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a teacher; schoolteacher.
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a person who is pedantic, dogmatic, and formal.
noun
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a teacher or educator
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a pedantic or dogmatic teacher
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pedagogue
1350–1400; Middle English pedagoge < Latin paedagōgus < Greek paidagōgós a boy's tutor. See ped- 1, -agogue
Explanation
Pedagogue is another name for "teacher," but one who is strict, stiff or old-fashioned. The word comes from the Greek pedo for "child" and agogos for "leader." A pedagogue leads people by teaching. The noun pedagogue, pronounced "PED-uh-gog," originally referred to "a slave who brings boys to school." Although the similar word pedagogy is the art of teaching, pedagogue has negative connotations. To call a teacher a pedagogue implies that he or she is "the teacher that time forgot," possibly using notes and handouts from twenty years ago, standing in that same spot, year after year, saying the same things, as students stare out the same windows.
Vocabulary lists containing pedagogue
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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.
Ever the eager pedagogue, as played with buoyant energy by Mr. Morse, Beckett annotates her performance: “Haydn based that movement of the symphony on a folk song. From Croatia.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
He graduated in 1972 from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he studied with the pedagogue and performer Leon Fleisher.
From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2023
Some also studied with Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, an artist and pedagogue known for his carefully observed, perfectly perspectival and impeccably patriotic pictures.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 3, 2023
COVID, a cruel pedagogue, has been teaching us to cut each other some slack.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2022
It was taught by the preacher in his pulpit, by the divine in his writings, by the pedagogue in his school.
From The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, March 1865 by Various
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.
