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didactic

adjective

dī-ˈdak-tik How to pronounce didactic (audio)
Definition of didacticnext
as in moralizing
marked by or given to preaching moral values the poet's works became increasingly didactic after his religious conversion

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of didactic The landscape is didactic, insistent. — Christopher Hooks, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026 Critics have speculated about why Virgil would choose to end his didactic pastoral epic with such a story. — Literary Hub, 12 June 2026 Navy excels at untangling human emotions and picking through them without being didactic or moralistic. — Dash Lewis, Pitchfork, 10 June 2026 Among the few genres of art in which the didactic flourishes today is science fiction. — David S. Wallace, New Yorker, 16 May 2026 See All Example Sentences for didactic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for didactic
  1. moralizing
  2. moralistic
  3. instructive
  4. preachy
  5. homiletic
Adjective
  • Eliot departs here from the moralizing messages of Memling and La Tour.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 31 Aug. 2026
  • Together with his lover Madame de Staël and their circle, Constant arrived at the idea—not in direct response to the Königsberg scandal but in response to the moralizing public absolutism of the age—that liberty required privacy to flourish.
    — Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of moralizing
Adjective
  • If the senator’s moralism has been unfettered by his stroke, with a shift toward right-brain moralistic processing, that does not diminish his sincere intent or its effect.
    — Michael P.H. Stanley, STAT, 10 Sep. 2026
  • Navy excels at untangling human emotions and picking through them without being didactic or moralistic.
    — Dash Lewis, Pitchfork, 10 June 2026
Definition of moralistic
Adjective
  • Some of the comments could have been kinder or more civil, but many others are both instructive and nuanced.
    — the Monitor's Editorial Board, Christian Science Monitor, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Doris Sommer’s Bilingual Aesthetics was instructive for me here.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of instructive
Adjective
  • That includes the power outage shutting down cell phone networks and Sunburn deliberately not being preachy about the often-talked about mental health risks for young people from excessive technology use.
    — Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 14 Sep. 2026
  • His tenderness and vulnerability sets the tone of the show, which takes men’s emotions seriouslywithout lapsing into either the preachy hugging and learning of Ted Lasso or the manipulative melodramatics of, say, A Million Little Pieces.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of preachy
Adjective
  • The preacher’s experience, insights and emotions all come into play when composing the homiletic text.
    — Joanne M. Pierce, The Conversation, 6 July 2023
  • There’s a word for this style of narrative preaching—homiletic.
    — Jo Livingstone, The New Republic, 6 Apr. 2021
Definition of homiletic

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Cite this Entry

“Didactic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/didactic. Accessed 24 Sep. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on didactic

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about didactic

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