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
Policymakers, of course, have condemned the deal, but many of the country’s experts and policy wonks believe that the glass is at least half full.
—
Dmitry Adamsky, Foreign Affairs, 26 Jan. 2014
And countless wonks have been shown the door in an effort to rid Trump’s government of expertise.
—Philip Elliott, TIME, 14 Feb. 2025
Beyond Wall Street, the development drew fresh questions for the wonks in Washington about the American supremacy on machine learning, risks to privacy, and the very premise of truth.
—Philip Elliott, TIME, 28 Jan. 2025
According to some energy wonks, this unleashing of manure biogas has come at the expense of faster vehicle electrification.
—Kenny Torrella, Vox, 13 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wonk
Dmitry Adamsky, Foreign Affairs, 26 Jan. 2014
And countless wonks have been shown the door in an effort to rid Trump’s government of expertise.
—Philip Elliott, TIME, 14 Feb. 2025
Beyond Wall Street, the development drew fresh questions for the wonks in Washington about the American supremacy on machine learning, risks to privacy, and the very premise of truth.
—Philip Elliott, TIME, 28 Jan. 2025
According to some energy wonks, this unleashing of manure biogas has come at the expense of faster vehicle electrification.
—Kenny Torrella, Vox, 13 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wonk
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wonk
Noun
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Fuller, like many a brilliant nerd, was initially awkward with her peers.—
James Marcus,
New Yorker,
2 June 2025
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Most of us would settle for Lucozade and a duvet on the settee, but Howe is Newcastle’s king nerd.—
George Caulkin,
New York Times,
29 May 2025
Noun
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Owner David Rubenstein needs to get rid of Elias (maybe Cal Ripken Jr. would agree to the job) and get baseball people instead of computer geeks to run the team.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
22 May 2025
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Jon Cherry/Getty Images For years, crypto was viewed by many as a weird and fringe investment, hyped up by a bunch of math geeks and used widely by all kinds of unsavory characters, from drug dealers to hackers.—
Rafael Nam,
NPR,
19 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wonk.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wonk. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
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