scholar

American  

[skol-er] / ˈskɒl ər /

noun

• scholars
  plural

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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Synonym Usage

See pupil ¹.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• scholars
  plural

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

Explanation

Someone who learns is a scholar, though the word also means someone with a lot of knowledge in one subject. If you know a lot about books, you could be called a literary scholar. It doesn't take a Latin scholar to understand the word scholar. It probably reminds you of school, scholastic, and scholarship. That's because they all share the Latin root schola which means school. A scholar in the academic sense usually has his or her area of specialty in the humanities as opposed to the sciences.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scholar scholars

"We usually think of the brain as a closed system," said Julia Belk, a postdoctoral scholar in pathology at Stanford Medicine and first author on the new study.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026

That may be one reason people are airing their frustrations on social media, according to Sara Collins, a senior scholar at the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation focused on healthcare policy.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

In the Bay Area, he became a visiting scholar at Stanford University and co-founded CrowdPac, a nonpartisan political fundraising platform.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

Jacobs-Wagner is also a member of Stanford Bio-X and an institute scholar at Sarafan ChEM-H.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026

After all the preparations, he couldn’t wait to finally meet the elfin scholar.

From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

Even the entreaties of Islamic scholars and officials of Islamic countries the world over have not bent the iron will of the emir and his enforcers, especially on the most sensitive issue of education.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

Legal scholars in the early 1800s treated this right as both intact and broad.

From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026

While the Dalai Lama expressed sorrow and questioned the efficacy of such protests, some scholars criticized him for not trying to stop the practice.

From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026

The project also demonstrates the value of collaboration among institutions, established researchers, students and postdoctoral scholars.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026

Some scholars believe there is a direct link between the advent of cooking, the shortening of the human intestinal track, and the growth of the human brain.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

Related Words

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