erudite

er·u·dite

adjective \ˈer-ə-ˌdīt, ˈer-yə-\

Definition of ERUDITE

: having or showing knowledge that is gained by studying : possessing or displaying erudition <an erudite scholar>

— er·u·dite·ly adverb

Examples of ERUDITE

1. <the most erudite people in medical research attended the conference>
2. <an erudite lecture on the latest discoveries in astronomy>
3. He wasn't bashful about showing himself to be feverishly erudite, … terminally droll, and a wizard phrasemaker. —Susan Sontag, New Yorker, 18 & 25 June 2001
4. … an engaging fellow: erudite, entertaining, intolerant of trendiness and fearlessly old-fashioned. … He can turn a nice phrase, too. —Mordecai Richler, Wall Street Journal, 2 May 1995
5. He was well read, especially in the works of Kipling, a field in which Violet could give him a game, and from time to time they would exchange erudite letters about Kipling characters. —Anthony Powell, The Strangers All are Gone, 1982

Origin of ERUDITE

Middle English erudit, from Latin eruditus, from past participle of erudire to instruct, from e- + rudis rude, ignorant

First Known Use: 15th century

Related to ERUDITE

Synonyms

educated, knowledgeable, learned, lettered, literate, scholarly, well-read

Antonyms

benighted, dark, ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, unlearned, unlettered, unscholarly

Related Words

civilized, cultivated, cultured; cerebral, highbrow, highbrowed, intellectual; polished, refined, well-bred; academic (also academical), bookish, didactic, didactical, inkhorn, pedantic, professorial; informed, instructed, schooled, skilled, trained; homeschooled, self-educated, self-instructed, self-taught; briefed, enlightened, informed, versed; overeducated, polyhistoric, polymath (or polymathic)

Near Antonyms

uncivilized, uncultivated, uncultured; lowbrow, semiliterate, unintellectual; ill-bred, unpolished, unrefined; uninformed, unknowledgeable; uninstructed, unschooled, untaught, untutored; semiliterate, undereducated