polymath
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- polymathic adjective
- polymathy noun
Etymology
Origin of polymath
1615–25; < Greek polymathḗs learned, having learned much, equivalent to poly- poly- + -mathēs, adj. derivative of manthánein to learn
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.
He was tutored by his uncle, Étienne-Jean Delécluze, a polymath painter, art critic and novelist.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 18, 2026
Later this month, the world premiere of Kurtag's second opera "Die Stechardin" about the 18th-century love story of a German polymath and a flower girl will cap the centenary of his birth.
From Barron's • Feb. 18, 2026
"I like facts, I like knowledge, I like having wide interests. There's various ways of describing such a person, dilettante might be one way and polymath might be another."
From BBC • Nov. 29, 2025
Tench is a polymath, a cross-genre equal-opportunity appreciator of great music.
From Salon • May 27, 2025
Something of a polymath, he was a Fellow of All Souls College in Oxford, physician to Edward VI and to Queen Mary, and sometime general surveyor of mines and money for the Crown.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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.
