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.
The long-suffering younger Forster described his father, in an understatement, as having “a tendency toward self-love, pride, and a certain scholarly vanity.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
He is writing for a general rather than a scholarly audience, so he does not much bother with the debates among historians about these two giants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 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
The National Endowment for the Humanities was established by Congress in 1965 to fund scholarly and cultural work across the country.
From Slate ● May 14, 2026
But they did not draw systematic scholarly attention until 1961, when William Denevan came to Bolivia.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
