What does "polyhistor" mean?

Someone gifted or learned to a great extent or in multiple disciplines; a great scholar.

What is a synonym for "polyhistor"?

Common synonyms include: academician, classicist, clerk, genius, humanist, learned man.

Pronounced //ˌpɒliˈhɪstɔː(ɹ)//.

//ˌpɒliˈhɪstɔː(ɹ)// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Someone gifted or learned to a great extent or in multiple disciplines; a great scholar.
"A hired diplomat in Edirne and to the Porte in Constantinople, a military commander in the Austro-Turkish wars, a polyhistor and a learned man."

"A hired diplomat in Edirne and to the Porte in Constantinople, a military commander in the Austro-Turkish wars, a polyhistor and a learned man."

From Latin polyhistor (“very learned”), from Hellenistic Ancient Greek πολυΐστωρ (poluḯstōr, “greatly learned”).

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