as in expert
a person with a high level of knowledge or skill in a field
a movie director who was widely regarded as the past master of suspense
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Recent Examples of past master
There is a certainty to her sentences that sets her alongside past masters (your William Trevors, your Anton Chekhovs) and a singular beauty to her observations.
—
Tomi Obaro, Vulture, 21 Nov. 2024
Coppola, a past master at directing actors, allows his performers – who include Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Aubrey Plaza, and Nathalie Emmanuel – to shamelessly ham it up.
—Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Sep. 2024
And he is positioned as the chief foreign luminary at the festival’s anniversary tribute to past master Ozu Yasujiro.
—Mark Schilling, Variety, 23 Oct. 2023
The fact that the company is designing a standalone robotaxi speaks to its failures in executing past master plans.
—Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 28 Feb. 2023
Does this past master of starting crazes see the Reddit phenomenon as a long-overdue democratization of the stock market, or a frenzy detached from the fundamentals of investing?
—Shawn Tully, Fortune, 22 Mar. 2021
Wonder, a past master of love songs, makes a demand that tests the output of every contemporary pop singer and every jaded fan.
—Armond White, National Review, 25 Nov. 2020
The locked-room mystery—not just a whodunnit but a how-done-it—pays homage to past masters such as John Dickson Carr and Gaston Leroux.
—The Economist, 18 Dec. 2019
When the ensemble made its first national tour, playing Orchestra Hall in September 1992, Marsalis and friends were trying to show that America needed a world-class jazz orchestra that could honor past masters while forging future ones.
—Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 16 Nov. 2019
Tomi Obaro, Vulture, 21 Nov. 2024
Coppola, a past master at directing actors, allows his performers – who include Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Aubrey Plaza, and Nathalie Emmanuel – to shamelessly ham it up.
—Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Sep. 2024
And he is positioned as the chief foreign luminary at the festival’s anniversary tribute to past master Ozu Yasujiro.
—Mark Schilling, Variety, 23 Oct. 2023
The fact that the company is designing a standalone robotaxi speaks to its failures in executing past master plans.
—Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 28 Feb. 2023
Does this past master of starting crazes see the Reddit phenomenon as a long-overdue democratization of the stock market, or a frenzy detached from the fundamentals of investing?
—Shawn Tully, Fortune, 22 Mar. 2021
Wonder, a past master of love songs, makes a demand that tests the output of every contemporary pop singer and every jaded fan.
—Armond White, National Review, 25 Nov. 2020
The locked-room mystery—not just a whodunnit but a how-done-it—pays homage to past masters such as John Dickson Carr and Gaston Leroux.
—The Economist, 18 Dec. 2019
When the ensemble made its first national tour, playing Orchestra Hall in September 1992, Marsalis and friends were trying to show that America needed a world-class jazz orchestra that could honor past masters while forging future ones.
—Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 16 Nov. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for past master
Noun
-
California is the most biodiverse state in the United States, experts say.—
Sarah Linn,
Sacbee.com,
22 Apr. 2026
-
Edmunds’ auto experts have identified the five best off-roading midsize trucks right now.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
22 Apr. 2026
Noun
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By elevating a master product architect, Apple is betting that the ultimate victor of the AI age will be the company that owns the final, most valuable mile of the consumer experience.—
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld,
Fortune,
21 Apr. 2026
-
Created from synthetic organic material, and thus more android than mechanical, these worker-roboti ultimately overthrow their human masters.—
Matthew Wills,
JSTOR Daily,
21 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Headline speakers present at this year’s festival included composer Craig Armstrong, who sat for an in-depth conversation with Scottish broadcaster Edith Bowman about his creative process, accompanied by a live performance of his most famous scores by local music scholars.—
Zac Ntim,
Deadline,
22 Apr. 2026
-
Where does the framework of religion as used by scholars of religion fall short, and what can be gained by thinking about values instead?—
Tim Brinkhof,
JSTOR Daily,
22 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Tech pioneer adept at shifting gears Atom Power was co-founded in 2015 by Kouroussis and Ryan Kennedy as a UNC Charlotte incubator, a project that started at the college before spinning off its own company and moving to the Lake Norman area.—
Charlotte Observer,
Charlotte Observer,
11 Mar. 2026
-
Meanwhile, Alouette has become an adept of dye recipes.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
5 Feb. 2026
Noun
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That won't mean much to most gamers or even most PC enthusiasts, but for memory-tuning wizards like 1usmus, more levers to pull in overclocking and timing adjustments may make more capable memory overclocks possible in the future.—
Jon Martindale,
PC Magazine,
24 Apr. 2026
-
Get ready for witches, munchkins and even the wizard.—
Stacey Zable,
USA Today,
23 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Now the Catalan viol virtuoso returns to Zellerbach Hall with a program featuring his Hespèrion XXI and nearly three dozen international musicians in a concert weaving a range of musical traditions.—
Randy McMullen,
Mercury News,
16 Apr. 2026
-
The 41-year-old bass virtuoso and R&B visionary has done the same before, dedicating his Grammy-winning previous album to rapper Mac Miller, a longtime friend.—
The Week US,
TheWeek,
15 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Standing on a circular base, her long peplos falls in both deep and shallow folds; it was meticulously sculpted by a single artist, rather than a workshop, to appear lifelike with natural depth and contour.—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
26 Apr. 2026
-
Alice Webb, who died in 2022, was a local artist and art teacher who touched many lives through her watercolors, oils and etchings.—
Janet Kusterer,
Baltimore Sun,
26 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The spa There's no spa on site, but a 1,700-square-foot fitness center and the option of having an in-room Peloton set up (the virtual exercise company's Hudson Yards headquarters is visible from the hotel gym itself) will be much appreciated by fitness gurus.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
21 Apr. 2026
-
Wall Street’s bull case, then, rests on Ternus, 51, being the right mix of traditional hardware guru and decisive innovator.—
Eva Roytburg,
Fortune,
21 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Past master.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/past%20master. Accessed 27 Apr. 2026.
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