Erudition

//ˌɛɹʊˈdɪʃən// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Profound knowledge acquired from learning and scholarship. countable, uncountable

    "Professor Archimedes Q. Porter was their only immediate anxiety. Fully assured in his own mind that his daughter had been picked up by a passing steamer, he gave over the last vestige of apprehension concerning her welfare, and devoted his giant intellect solely to the consideration of those momentous and abstruse scientific problems which he considered the only proper food for thought in one of his erudition."

  2. 2
    profound scholarly knowledge wordnet
  3. 3
    The refinement, polish and knowledge that education confers. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
eruditenessknowledgelearningscholarshipbibliolatrybibliomania

Example

More examples

"Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit."

Etymology

First attested in the 15th Century. From Middle French érudition, from Latin eruditio (“an instructing, learning, erudition”), from erudire (“to instruct, educate, cultivate”, literally “free from rudeness”), from e (“out”) + rudis (“rude”).

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