tinkerer

as in amateur
a person who regularly or occasionally engages in an activity as a pastime rather than as a profession he's been tinkering with cars since he was a kid, and now he's a tinkerer who knows nearly as much as a mechanic

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for tinkerer
Noun
  • Hitler—still two years from power—was dismissed as a dithering amateur, reliant on speeches, crowds, and parliamentary niceties.
    Thomas Meaney, New Yorker, 2 July 2025
  • The contest arrives as AI becomes an increasingly popular tool for musicians from amateurs to professionals — more than 60 million people used AI software to create music in 2024, according to the International Music Summit’s 2025 Business Report.
    Leslie Katz, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025
Noun
  • India’s lower batting order stunk the place out in layman’s terms - a crucial difference between winning and losing.
    Tim Ellis, Forbes.com, 2 July 2025
  • The immaculate print appeared to this layman’s eye to look about as sharp as contemporary digital Imax, but with the celluloid origins and print adding additional richness.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 30 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • David Byrne came from Baltimore by way of Scotland, a socially awkward dabbler in conceptualist experiments with photography and a veteran of various mediocre cover bands.
    Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 17 June 2025
  • Where Sun is a dabbler, Geffen is an established connoisseur.
    Rachel Corbett, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2025
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.

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“Tinkerer.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tinkerer. Accessed 13 Jul. 2025.

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