as in nerd
a person slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits
the candidate has an army of policy wonks ready to write for him a position paper on virtually any issue
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Recent Examples of wonk
The nation’s top health officials, regulators, and policy wonks huddled on the eighth floor of the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday to take a victory lap for a new report on children’s health that was big on hype—128 ideas!—but slim on actual prescriptions.
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Philip Elliott, Time, 10 Sep. 2025
Jennifer Granick, an ACLU lawyer, contends that our legal system stinks at threat modeling, something security wonks live for.
—Neil J. Rubenking, PC Magazine, 1 Aug. 2025
For those of you who aren’t government wonks, that’s a prime position for pushing back against Trump.
—Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2025
This is all classic Spanberger, who's long cultivated a reputation as a moderate policy wonk focused on issues like fentanyl overdoses, veterans, and agriculture.
—Margaret Barthel, NPR, 17 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for wonk
Philip Elliott, Time, 10 Sep. 2025
Jennifer Granick, an ACLU lawyer, contends that our legal system stinks at threat modeling, something security wonks live for.
—Neil J. Rubenking, PC Magazine, 1 Aug. 2025
For those of you who aren’t government wonks, that’s a prime position for pushing back against Trump.
—Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2025
This is all classic Spanberger, who's long cultivated a reputation as a moderate policy wonk focused on issues like fentanyl overdoses, veterans, and agriculture.
—Margaret Barthel, NPR, 17 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for wonk
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wonk
Noun
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Roberts’s pet theory is the Major Questions Doctrine, known to Supreme Court nerds as MQD.—
Noah Feldman,
Twin Cities,
6 Nov. 2025
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Military history nerds will be pleased.—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Suing public universities over athletic department records isn’t just the province of journalists and First Amendment geeks anymore.—
Daniel Libit,
Sportico.com,
11 Nov. 2025
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This is Disneyland for a certain type of poetry geek.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wonk.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wonk. Accessed 28 Nov. 2025.
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