amanuensis
Americannoun
-
amanuenses
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of amanuensis
1610–20; < Latin ( servus ) āmanuēnsis, equivalent to ā- a- 4 + manu-, stem of manus hand + -ēnsis -ensis
Explanation
An amanuensis is someone who is good at taking notes when someone else is talking, like a stenographer or an administrative assistant. In Latin, the word amanuensis literally means "a servant from the hand." The word generally refers to a person who is skilled at taking dictation. In a courtroom, you might see a stenographer quickly typing up what everyone in the room is saying. A stenographer is an amanuensis. Anyone who can copy or write down what someone else is saying is considered an amanuensis. So if you've ever taken good notes in class, then you're an amanuensis!
Vocabulary lists containing amanuensis
Book Words for Book Worms
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Song of Solomon
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David Copperfield
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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.
See Examples For:
Anthony never married, and she considered herself to some degree Stanton’s amanuensis, confiding to an intimate that she felt that her best work had been “making the way clear” for her friend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
Dazzled by Kubrick, Vitali largely lost interest in acting and instead became Kubrick’s amanuensis, performing unsung tasks on The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 27, 2018
For its first foray into the mini-books market, Dutton is reissuing four young-adult novels, available individually or in a boxed set, by the blockbuster amanuensis of adolescent yearning John Green.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 30, 2018
Her career was wobbly by then, but for much of the time before her death in 1975, Mr. Baker supported her, serving as manager, companion and amanuensis.
From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2015
So Corinthians was almost on her way to becoming an amanuensis after all.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
Further complications ensue when the maestro and the diva fall in love with their amanuenses.
From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 2014
A great man thinks a thought in the presence of two amanuenses, provided I am right in spelling the plural in that way.
From A Guest at the Ludlow and Other Stories by Edgar Wilson
He was nearly blind, and had to teach himself Spanish and look up authorities through the help of others, and to write with a noctograph or by amanuenses.
From Initial Studies in American Letters by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers
Mr. Murray's profits would have been greater, though "authors," amanuenses, photographers, paper-makers, West-End booksellers, and other parasitic artisans might have suffered slightly.
From Books and Persons Being Comments on a Past Epoch 1908-1911 by Arnold Bennett
Ebn Saad, one of Mahomet's amanuenses, when writing what the prophet dictated, cried out by way of admiration—"Blessed be God, the best Creator!"
From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 by Isaac Disraeli
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.
