as in amateur
having skills or knowledge acquired through one's own efforts without formal training
a self-instructed carpenter who does quality work
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-instructed
Adjective
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In Short’s case, the flattening is particularly egregious, because the inchoate facts of her life are shoehorned into the obsessions of amateur sleuths who continue to get those facts wrong.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
29 Jan. 2026 -
Buskey, who previously competed as an amateur mixed martial arts fighter in local Cage Wars events according to the Times Union, has remained in custody since his arrest in April 2024.—
Christina Coulter,
PEOPLE,
27 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Born in 1970 in Herber City, Utah, Allen is largely self-taught, having begun his artistic career by whittling figures and selling them from atop an ironing board on the streets of SoHo in New York.—
News Desk,
Artforum,
24 Nov. 2025
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Despite becoming one of the most popular guitarists in the world, Frehley was famously self-taught and never had any formal instruction.—
Jacqueline Weiss,
PEOPLE,
18 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Over the past decade, she’s cultivated a reputation for a new kind of defiant, autodidactic pop stardom.—
Holden Seidlitz,
New Yorker,
5 Aug. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Self-instructed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-instructed. Accessed 30 Jan. 2026.
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