didactic

adjective di·dac·tic \ dī-ˈdak-tik , də- \

|Updated on: 17 Jun 2018

Examples: didactic in a Sentence

Editor's Note: We Will Teach You the Origin of didactic

Definition of didactic

1 a : designed or intended to teach

b : intended to convey instruction and information as well as pleasure and entertainment

didactic poetry

2 : making moral observations

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didactical

play \-ti-kəl\ adjective

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didactically

play \-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

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didacticism

play \-tə-ˌsi-zəm\ noun

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Examples of didactic in a Sentence

Slaves related human as well as animal trickster tales; they told Bible stories, explanatory tales, moralistic and didactic tales, supernatural tales and legends. —Lawrence W. Levine, The Unpredictable Past, 1993
For two decades, many Americans, including some early advocates of the Vietnam intervention, have been relentlessly didactic, extracting cautionary lessons from Vietnam. —George F. Will, Newsweek, 22 May 1989
—the trappings, one might say—of a didactic and resolutely pious Victorian sensibility in the service of an anarchic imagination. —Joyce Carol Oates, The Profane Art, 1983
the poet's works became increasingly didactic after his religious conversion

Recent Examples of didactic from the Web

While Abrams is obviously concerned with capturing the trying conditions of life in coal country, her images don't come off as loaded or didactic in the way that this kind of work can sometimes be.

— dmitry samarov, Chicago Reader, "Photojournalist Nancy Abrams looks back on her years in West Virginia in The Climb From Salt Lick," 14 May 2018
En route to its delightful if touchingly awkward finale, the movie dispenses the sort of lessons that walk a fine line between insightful and didactic.

— justin chang, latimes.com, "'Love, Simon' is a sweet, disarming first: a gay teen romantic comedy from a major studio," 14 Mar. 2018
The film begins abruptly, as if in midscene, with a documentarylike record of a workers' meeting; the credits are followed by an actual documentary segment on housing development in the early 60s, complete with didactic voice-over.

— patrick friel, Chicago Reader, "Dance / Film / Foreign / Gender Issues / Moviegoing / Old Movies to Watch Now / On Video Five classic films by Latin American women," 17 Apr. 2018
The brisk and often funny novel is political without being polemical, educational without being didactic.

— kevin riordan, Philly.com, "A Camden kid lived the story, and a Philly author wrote the book," 7 May 2018
Some of the more didactic or philosophical sections, on the other hand, can sound forced.

— maggie doherty, The New Republic, "On Not Becoming a Mother," 25 Apr. 2018
The first part is more didactic that gives insights into Abercrombie's life including a WFMT radio interview with her and Studs Terkel, which ran shortly after her death in 1977.

— dmitry samarov, Chicago Reader, "Arts / Jazz / Visual Art Gertrude Abercrombie's self-portraits show an inner landscape of anxiety, fear, and loneliness," 13 Feb. 2018
And Renee, in contrast to the complex and semi-autobiographical character Schumer wrote and played in Trainwreck, is bland, didactic, and shallow.

— leah pickett, Chicago Reader, "There's something ugly about I Feel Pretty," 20 Apr. 2018
One easy option would be to simply include a didactic text in the appropriate gallery of other archaic Greek art explaining the status of one of the Villa’s most famous works, now conspicuously missing.

— christopher knight, latimes.com, "Something's missing from the newly reinstalled antiquities collection at the Getty Villa," 19 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'didactic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

We Will Teach You the Origin of didactic

Didaktikos is a Greek word that means "apt at teaching." It comes from didaskein, meaning "to teach." Something "didactic" does just that: teaches or instructs. "Didactic" conveyed that neutral meaning when it was first borrowed in the 17th century, and still does; a didactic piece of writing is one that is meant to be instructive as well as artistic. Parables are generally didactic because they aim to teach a moral lesson. "Didactic" now sometimes has negative connotations, too, however. Something "didactic" is often overburdened with instruction to the point of being dull. Or it might be pompously instructive or moralistic.

Origin and Etymology of didactic

borrowed from New Latin didacticus, borrowed from Greek didaktikós "apt at teaching," from didaktós "taught, learned" (verbal adjective of didáskein, aorist edídaxa "to teach, instruct," factitive derivative of daênai "to learn") + -ikos ¹-ic; daênai going back to Indo-European *dens-, *dn̥s- "become knowledgeable or skillful," whence also Avestan dīdaiŋ́hē "(I) learn, experience" and, in nominal derivatives, Sanskrit dáṃsaḥ "marvelous power," dasráḥ "accomplishing wonderful deeds," and perhaps Greek dḗnea "plans, intentions"

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1658

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year

DIDACTIC Defined for English Language Learners

didactic

adjective

Definition of didactic for English Language Learners

: designed or intended to teach people something
—used to describe someone or something that tries to teach something (such as proper or moral behavior) in a way that is annoying or unwanted