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It’s no hot take to say that the original pundits were highly learned scholars and teachers in India; it’s just a statement of fact. Our English word pundit comes from the Hindi word paṇḍit, a term of respect (and sometimes an honorary title) for a wise person, especially one with knowledge of philosophy, religion, and law; its ultimate source is the Sanskrit word paṇḍita, meaning “learned.” English speakers have used pundit to refer to sages of India since the 1600s, but as is typically done with English, they eventually pushed the word into new semantic territory. By the late 1800s, pundit could also refer to a member of what is sometimes called the commentariat or punditocracy—that is, the collective group of political commentators, financial analysts, and newspaper columnists often paid to share their views on a variety of subjects.
Examples of pundit in a Sentence
Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Mar. 2026
Political observers and pundits say that possibility is low — but have not ruled it out entirely.
—Linh Tat, Daily News, 11 Mar. 2026
The field will be announced on Sunday, leaving plenty of time for fans and broadcast pundits to debate Stanford’s fate.
—Laurence Miedema, Mercury News, 10 Mar. 2026
When Biden dropped out and Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, pundits highlighted that influencers were now molding the cultural conversation across the country.
—Jay Stahl, USA Today, 10 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for pundit
Cite this Entry
“Pundit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pundit. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026.
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