pedagogue

American  

[ped-uh-gog, -gawg] / ˈpɛd əˌgɒg, -ˌgɔg /

Or pedagog

noun

1. a teacher; schoolteacher.

2. a person who is pedantic, dogmatic, and formal.

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pedagogue British  

/ ˈpɛdəˌɡɒɡ /

noun

1. a teacher or educator

2. a pedantic or dogmatic teacher

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Other Word Forms

• pedagogery noun
• pedagogic adjective
• pedagogically adverb
• pedagogish adjective
• pedagogism noun
• pedagoguery noun
• pedagoguish adjective

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.

Example Sentences

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

Still, it’s a pleasure to enjoy something that’s both straight-faced and freewheeling, like a jazz pedagogue who also knows how to get a crowd dancing.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2025

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

He attempted to do what others have failed in, he attempted to lead, here in our huge, noisy city, antipathetic to æsthetic creation, the double existence of a composer and a pedagogue.

From Unicorns by Huneker, James