Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of scholarly
Explanation
Someone who's scholarly is a serious student. You can describe your studious friend who's always working on a research paper or reading a huge book as scholarly. Use the adjective scholarly when you talk about a person who is focused on learning — in other words, a scholar. You can also describe things that relate to studying or knowledge as scholarly, like a scholarly article in a journal or a scholarly atmosphere in a library. The Old English word scolere, or "student," is the root of both scholar and scholarly, from the Latin word for school, schola.
Vocabulary lists containing scholarly
Chapter 1: What Does a Historian Do?
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Words to Describe a Teacher
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
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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.
An editor or subject-matter expert will ask a straightforward question: Is this critique coherent, serious and reasonable enough to deserve scholarly attention?
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
As in postpublication peer review, a Peer Review article may address a paper from any scholarly journal so long as it raises concerns about methods, evidence, logic, definitions or theory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
Applications go first to peer experts, who evaluate scholarly merit.
From Slate ● May 14, 2026
The statute that created the agency was clear about what Congress was funding: work of “substantial scholarly and cultural significance” that reflects “the diversity and richness of our American cultural heritage.”
From Slate ● May 14, 2026
At first the curios and etchings had blended in with the scholarly clutter of the office.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
