as in nerd
a person slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits
the candidate has an army of policy wonks ready to write for him a position paper on virtually any issue
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Recent Examples of wonk
As the noise about tariffs increases on a daily basis, some retail policy wonks began to search for historical perspective.
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Rick Helfenbein, Forbes, 12 Mar. 2025
Policymakers, of course, have condemned the deal, but many of the country’s experts and policy wonks believe that the glass is at least half full.
—Dmitry Adamsky, Foreign Affairs, 26 Jan. 2014
And countless wonks have been shown the door in an effort to rid Trump’s government of expertise.
—Philip Elliott, TIME, 14 Feb. 2025
Beyond Wall Street, the development drew fresh questions for the wonks in Washington about the American supremacy on machine learning, risks to privacy, and the very premise of truth.
—Philip Elliott, TIME, 28 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wonk
Rick Helfenbein, Forbes, 12 Mar. 2025
Policymakers, of course, have condemned the deal, but many of the country’s experts and policy wonks believe that the glass is at least half full.
—Dmitry Adamsky, Foreign Affairs, 26 Jan. 2014
And countless wonks have been shown the door in an effort to rid Trump’s government of expertise.
—Philip Elliott, TIME, 14 Feb. 2025
Beyond Wall Street, the development drew fresh questions for the wonks in Washington about the American supremacy on machine learning, risks to privacy, and the very premise of truth.
—Philip Elliott, TIME, 28 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wonk
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wonk
Noun
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As a film nerd with a 37-inch vertical, Nique Clifford only borrows from the best.—
Sean Keeler,
Denver Post,
24 June 2025
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Music supervisor is a job that is part professional music nerd, part aural detective and part crate-digging business affairs exec.—
Peter White,
Deadline,
20 June 2025
Noun
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Desperate to return to his own era to help save his kin, Rex must team up with a gang of nerds, freaks and geeks to go back 65 million years in time.—
Leo Barraclough,
Variety,
10 June 2025
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Cynthia Erivo sang-hosted the June 8 ceremony from Radio City Music Hall, making several dreams come true for a room full of theater geeks.—
Jason P. Frank,
Vulture,
9 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wonk.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wonk. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.
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