Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A learned person; a scholar.
- noun An idiot savant.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A man of learning or science; one eminent for learning.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A man of learning; one versed in literature or science; a person eminent for acquirements.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A person of
learning ; one who isversed in literature or science. - noun A person eminent for
acquirements .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun someone who has been admitted to membership in a scholarly field
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word savant.
Examples
-
All the whole human drift, from the first ape-man to the last savant, is but a phantom, a flash of light and a flutter of movement across the infinite face of the starry night.
THE HUMAN DRIFT 2010
-
To be sure, a 13 year old, no matter how savant, is not experienced in the ways of the world, and looks like a kid most likely.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Age Discrmination Against Child Prodigy? 2010
-
That the gourmand, amiable savant, is pictured as nibbling on a partridge wing (itself related to the arm which raises it to the diner's mouth) au suprême (mark of invested expertise), thus with the expertly prepared food neither completely inside or outside the mouth even as it is consumed, a circumstance that works to prolong the process of eating and its attendant pleasure, emphasizes this ambiguity.
Economies of Excess in Brillat-Savarin, Balzac, and Baudelaire 2007
-
The point, nonchalant savant, is not to eliminate waste but to minimize it as much as possible while keeping other value parameters in mind.
-
An idiot savant is a person with autism that has extraordinary skills in certain domains in spite of cognitive deficiencies in most others.
Hall of Flame 2003
-
An idiot savant is a person with autism that has extraordinary skills in certain domains in spite of cognitive deficiencies in most others.
Hall of Flame 2003
-
An idiot savant is a person with autism that has extraordinary skills in certain domains in spite of cognitive deficiencies in most others.
Hall of Flame 2003
-
An idiot savant is a person with autism that has extraordinary skills in certain domains in spite of cognitive deficiencies in most others.
Hall of Flame 2003
-
An idiot savant is a person with autism that has extraordinary skills in certain domains in spite of cognitive deficiencies in most others.
Hall of Flame 2003
-
An idiot savant is a person with autism that has extraordinary skills in certain domains in spite of cognitive deficiencies in most others.
Hall of Flame 2003
seanahan commented on the word savant
You almost never hear this word without being prefaced by idiot.
July 8, 2007