Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Deep, extensive learning. synonym: knowledge.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Learning; scholarship; knowledge gained by study or from books and instruction; particularly, learning in literature, history, antiquities, and languages, as distinct from knowledge of the mathematical and physical sciences.
  • noun Synonyms Learning, Scholarship, Lore, etc. See literature.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of instructing; the result of thorough instruction; the state of being erudite or learned; the acquisitions gained by extensive reading or study; particularly, learning in literature or criticism, as distinct from the sciences; scholarship.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Profound knowledge, especially that based on learning and scholarship.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun profound scholarly knowledge

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin eruditio ("an instructing, learning, erudition"), from erudire ("to instruct, educate, cultivate", literally "free from rudeness"), from e ("out") + rudis ("rude").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Erudition, n. Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull.

    Ambrose Bierce

    The Devil's Dictionary

    March 30, 2007

  • From p. 25 of Patrick Leigh Fermor's "A Time to Keep Silence":

    I found no trace of the Dark Ages here, no hint of necropolitan gloom or bigotry, still less of the ghastly breeziness that is such an embarrassing characteristic of many English clerics. There was no doubt of the respect in which they held the cause to which their lives were devoted; but their company was like that of any civilised well-educated Frenchman, with all the balance, erudition and wit that one expected, the only difference being a gentleness, a lack of haste, and a calmness which is common to the whole community.

    January 21, 2014