idiot savant

noun

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idiot sa·vant | \ ˈi-dē-ət-sə-ˈvänt

, -ˈvant

, ˈē-ˌdyō-sä-ˈväⁿ

plural idiots savants\ ˈi-dē-əts-sə-ˈvänt(s)

, -ˈvant(s)

, ˈē-ˌdyō-sä-ˈväⁿ(z)

\ or idiot savants\ ˈē-ˌdyō-sä-ˈväⁿ(z)

Definition of idiot savant

1 dated, now offensive : savant sense 2

2 : a person who is highly knowledgeable about one subject but knows little about anything else

Examples of idiot savant in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web But while there’s a veneer of innocence to these home movies—an air of the idiot savant’s capacity to unwittingly capture a glimpse of profundity—their most powerful valence is not one of innocence but of self-effacing knowledge. — Leslie Jamison, The New York Review of Books, 29 Apr. 2020 On the one hand, this understanding of AI as an idiot savant is perfectly sensible. — James Vincent, The Verge, 3 Oct. 2018 Similarly, Yang's character Jian Yang is portrayed as an idiot savant, a mostly silent character there for Erlich (T.J. Miller, who was fired from the show) to mock. — Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, 7 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'idiot savant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.