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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
Jay Caspian Kang, The New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2024
Just as Western pundits have started to speculate about what new kinds of power developing countries can exert as a bloc, the fortunes of many individual non-Western states have taken a turn for the worse.
—Comfort Ero, Foreign Affairs, 1 Apr. 2024
Key Background Biden’s strong polling follows his March 7 State of the Union speech, which surpassed pundits’ expectations and supporters have argued boosted his image.
—James Farrell, Forbes, 30 Mar. 2024
And the consensus among pundits was that Mr. Lieberman’s religion played no role in Gore’s loss, in keeping with political history that suggests a party’s vice-presidential choice seldom makes a difference in the voting.
—Michael H. Brown, Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2024
Surely among the reasons are factors that outside pundits have cited.
—Steven Levy, WIRED, 15 Mar. 2024
Political pundits had pointed to Vermont as Haley's best chance to win a state, especially given its history of favoring moderate Republican candidates.
—Jeremy Yurow, USA TODAY, 6 Mar. 2024
Physicians are warning against a growing wave of misinformation spread by right-wing pundits and social media influencers who claim hormonal birth control is causing negative health effects like infertility, weight gain, and mental illness.
—Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune, 22 Mar. 2024
Some pundits thought the film could triumph in the makeup and hairstyling category, but that award, like a number of other craft prizes, went to Poor Things.
—Hilary Lewis, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pundit.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near pundit
Cite this Entry
“Pundit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pundit. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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