savant

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
“
Another quality which one would be less disposed to look for in the savant is a fine contempt for danger, which is veiled in such modesty that one reads between the lines in order to detect it.

View all »
Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A learned person; a scholar.
  2. noun An idiot savant.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • He tried to call the savant's name, but his vocal chords produced no sound that he could hear. —  Astounding Stories January, 1935
  • He was bigger than the savant, and willing to bet he was stronger, too. —  F ;SF; - vol 091 issue 04-05 - October-November 1996
  • She was an organizational savant, a voice in the ear of the global acquisition market. —  FSF,June2008
  • Lars hastily scrambled backward on his hands and hips, as if afraid that the savant was about to attack him. —  Asimov'sSF,April-May2007
  • He tried to talk to Manuel Castro, but the savant was detached from all human feeling, and in his glass eyes Garcia saw only a disturbing reflection of himself. —  Asimov'sSF,Jan2004
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 125 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French, learned, savant, from Old French, present participle of savoir, to know, from Vulgar Latin sapēre, from Latin sapere, to be wise; see sep- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French savant, a learned man, from savant, learned, knowing, present participle of savoir, know, from Latin sapere, have sense or discernment: see sapient, of which savant is a doublet.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/sæˈvɑn/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a month.

Recently looked up

deflation · empathic · subtractive · Proxim · redcoat

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

a for 'orses · snarfillicate my snackrabbit · j for cakes · chic flick · rhodorhinorangifericide