as in nerds
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 wonks
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
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wonks
Noun
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Advertisement Especially for comedy nerds, the behind-the-scenes anecdotes about working with legends like Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder might be familiar.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
30 Jan. 2026
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SmackDown also features the return of Jade Cargill, who has come under fire by nerds online for not defending her WWE Women’s Championship for 70 days.—
Alfred Konuwa,
Forbes.com,
23 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The stamp of the vaunted independent hip-hop label—which has built a reputation among its community of fanatical diehards and like-minded rap geeks for its lyric-forward, anti-commercial approach—can bring new eyes to a rapper overnight.—
Alphonse Pierre,
Pitchfork,
30 Jan. 2026
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For airline geeks and loyal fans of the Emirates brand, the livery was probably the highlight announcement coming from Dubai this week.—
Paula Conway,
Forbes.com,
27 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Wonks.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wonks. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.
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