What does "book-learned" mean?

Versed in books; having knowledge derived from books, as opposed to from practical knowledge.

What is a synonym for "book-learned"?

Common synonyms include: academic, bluestocking, bookish, donnish, literary, pedantic.

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Adjective

1
Versed in books; having knowledge derived from books, as opposed to from practical knowledge. not-comparable
"Whate'er these book-learn'd block-heads say, Solon's the veriest fool in all the play."

"Whate'er these book-learn'd block-heads say, Solon's the veriest fool in all the play."

From Middle English bok-lerned, boke-lornut, equivalent to book + learned.

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