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
Some industry insiders and policy wonks will say the public needs a few economics lessons.
—
Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 24 Oct. 2025
But there’s no way, the GTW accounting wonks insist, that the Buffs’ bean-counters would ever let CU give up a home game, and a home gate, for a jaunt across the pond.
—Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 11 Oct. 2025
Don’t look now, but the wonks have come out with a way to measure how well AI entities do at forming relationships with people.
—John Werner, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
Another, more recent precedent was the National Security Commission of Artificial Intelligence, formed in 2018 to study how American government policy wonks should react to the rising prevalence of AI.
—IEEE Spectrum, 25 Mar. 2022
See All Example Sentences for wonk
Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 24 Oct. 2025
But there’s no way, the GTW accounting wonks insist, that the Buffs’ bean-counters would ever let CU give up a home game, and a home gate, for a jaunt across the pond.
—Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 11 Oct. 2025
Don’t look now, but the wonks have come out with a way to measure how well AI entities do at forming relationships with people.
—John Werner, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
Another, more recent precedent was the National Security Commission of Artificial Intelligence, formed in 2018 to study how American government policy wonks should react to the rising prevalence of AI.
—IEEE Spectrum, 25 Mar. 2022
See All Example Sentences for wonk
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wonk
Noun
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An array of charts buried in the fine print of the state budget, unknown to all but a few fiscal nerds, details what California has collected in revenues and spent over the last half-century.—
Dan Walters,
Mercury News,
17 Feb. 2026
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For the heartfelt poster nerd, this is where collecting grows most focussed, in the pursuit of works by an individual artist.—
Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
16 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Their designers are a bunch of obsessive geeks, in the best way possible, who take pride in producing designs no one else can touch.—
Jakob Schiller,
Outside,
16 Feb. 2026
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Jim described himself as a lifelong car geek, but his schoolteacher mother was a single parent.—
Jeff Gluck,
New York Times,
11 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Wonk.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wonk. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.
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