wonk
Americannoun
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a student who spends much time studying and has little or no social life; grind.
-
a stupid, boring, or unattractive person.
-
a person who studies a subject or issue in an excessively assiduous and thorough manner.
They’re searching for a policy wonk to lead the economic institute’s think tank.
noun
Other Word Forms
- wonkish adjective
Etymology
Origin of wonk
An Americanism first recorded in 1960–65; of expressive origin; nautical slang wonk “a midshipman,” and Australian slang “white person; gay man” are probably independent formations
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.
Colleagues, including some Republicans, describe her as reasonable and a policy wonk who loves spreadsheets.
From Los Angeles Times
Even for policy wonks, it’s a challenge to keep up with the cadence of discounts and negotiated prices while deciphering what is merely optics and what represents actual savings.
From MarketWatch
Analytically minded front offices, full of Ivy League data wonks with little or no playing experience, have far less reverence for baseball orthodoxy and have begun looking for talent in unusual places.
That’s what makes the Rockies the Holy Grail for the math wonks and Ivy League whiz kids who make up baseball’s executive class.
This battle between Team USA and Europe at Bethpage Black is also a proxy war between rival flotillas of wonks and analysts who advise both teams.
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.
