Definition of erudite
:having or showing knowledge that is gained by studying :possessing or displaying erudition
- an erudite scholar
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Examples of erudite in a Sentence
- 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
- … 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
- 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
the most erudite people in medical research attended the conference
an erudite lecture on the latest discoveries in astronomy
Recent Examples of erudite from the Web
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A terrific travel writer Colin Thubron, who has written a great number of extremely erudite travel books, did one about China four years after that.
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Just 120 students and one erudite educator’s curated list of 100 questions about history, geography, culture, civics, and mathematics.
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And though the characters may not be particularly erudite, Cohen's writing is filled with sharp turns of phrase and elegant rhythms.
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REV’s production reduces one of literatures’s most poetic, erudite speakers to a babbling fool.
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There was always a sense of the erudite, a sense of humor, a real man inside the freakish body.
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OUL presents erudite and impassioned lectures (and the occasional panel discussion) by academics and activists on a range of issues vital to old lefties and, especially now, to all of us.
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Such insights give a glimpse into the lively, open-minded and erudite story that Lawrence tells.
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This framing of grief as an endurance sport underpins The Long Run, which is an elegant and erudite jumble of different things.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'erudite.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
Erudite derives via Middle English "erudite" from Latin eruditus, the past participle of the verb erudire, meaning "to instruct." A closer look at that verb shows that it is formed by combining the prefix e-, meaning "missing" or "absent," with the adjective "rudis," which means "rude" or "ignorant" and is also the source of our word rude. We typically use the word rude to mean "discourteous" or "uncouth" but it can also mean "lacking refinement" or "uncivilized"; someone who is erudite, therefore, has been transformed from a roughened or uninformed state to a polished and knowledgeable one through a devotion to learning.
Origin and Etymology of erudite
Middle English erudit, from Latin eruditus, from past participle of erudire to instruct, from e- + rudis rude, ignorant
erudite Synonyms
Synonyms
educated, knowledgeable, learned, lettered, literate, scholarly, well-readAntonyms
benighted, dark, ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, unlearned, unlettered, unscholarlyRelated 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, undereducatedLearn More about erudite
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for erudite Spanish Central: Translation of erudite Nglish: Translation of erudite for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of erudite for Arabic speakers
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