idiot savant

noun

idiot sa·​vant ˈi-dē-ət-sə-ˈvänt  -ˈvant  ˈē-ˌdyō-sä-ˈväⁿ 

plural idiots savants ˈi-dē-əts-sə-ˈvänt(s)  -ˈvant(s)  ˈē-ˌdyō-sä-ˈväⁿ(z)  or idiot savants ˈē-ˌdyō-sä-ˈväⁿ(z) 

1

dated, now offensive : savant sense 2

2

: a person who is highly knowledgeable about one subject but knows little about anything else

Examples of idiot savant in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There was an aspect of him that was like a lost orphan, like this kind of crazy idiot savant. —Tomás Mier, Rolling Stone, 16 Oct. 2025

But while there’s a veneer of innocence to these home movies—an air of the idiot savant’s capacity to unwittingly capture a glimpse of profundity—their most powerful valence is not one of innocence but of self-effacing knowledge. —Leslie Jamison, The New York Review of Books, 29 Apr. 2020

On the one hand, this understanding of AI as an idiot savant is perfectly sensible. —James Vincent, The Verge, 3 Oct. 2018

Similarly, Yang's character Jian Yang is portrayed as an idiot savant, a mostly silent character there for Erlich (T.J. Miller, who was fired from the show) to mock. —Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, 7 Mar. 2018

Word History

Etymology

French, literally, learned idiot

First Known Use

1870, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Medical Definition

idiot savant

noun

idiot sa·​vant ˈē-ˌdyō-sä-ˈväⁿ; ˈid-ē-ət-sə-ˈvänt, -ˈvant 

plural idiots savants -ˌdyō-sä-ˈväⁿ(z); -əts-sə-ˈvänt(s), -ˈvant(s)  or idiot savants

dated, now offensive : savant