scholar

American  

[skol-er] / ˈskɒl ər /

noun

1. a learned or erudite person, especially one who has profound knowledge of a particular subject.

   Synonyms:

   savant

2. a student; pupil.

3. a student who has been awarded a scholarship.

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scholar British  

/ ˈskɒlə /

noun

1. a learned person, esp in the humanities

2. a person, esp a child, who studies; pupil

3. a student of merit at an educational establishment who receives financial aid, esp from an endowment given for such a purpose

4. a school pupil

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Related Words

See pupil ¹.

Other Word Forms

• nonscholar noun
• nonscholarly adjective
• scholarless adjective
• scholarliness noun
• scholarly adjective

Etymology

Origin of scholar

First recorded before 1000; from Late Latin scholāris, equivalent to Latin schol(a) school ¹ + -āris -ar ¹; replacing Middle English scoler(e), Old English scolere, from Late Latin, as above

Example Sentences

This “private ordering” alternative has decades of support from scholars and individual SEC commissioners.

From The Wall Street Journal

Edward H. Levi, a respected legal scholar who served as Ford’s attorney general, began working to mend the department from within, which included limiting the scope and power of the FBI.

From Salon

Though scholars have traced the origins of nearly all the six score or so known Lincoln photos, this one remained undocumented.

From The Wall Street Journal

One of our more bracing memories is a lunch at the Cato Institute with a dozen or so of its scholars.

From The Wall Street Journal

Frank Dikötter is an iconoclast historian who immerses himself in the primary sources more thoroughly than any other Western scholar of 20th-century China.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• academic
• doctor
• intellectual
• philosopher
• professor
• scientist
• student
• teacher