Autodidact

//ˌɔːtoʊˈdaɪdækt// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A self-taught person.

    "Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the greatest autodidacts."

  2. 2
    a person who has taught themself wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
auditorautomathinquirerlearnermonitorprefect

Example

More examples

"When he didn't receive a place at university, Tom became an autodidact."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek αὐτοδίδακτος (autodídaktos), from αὐτός (autós, “self”) + διδάσκω (didáskō, “I teach”). By surface analysis, auto- + didact.

Related phrases

self educatedself taught

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.