Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Keep "schoolman" when the sentence already sounds natural, when a synonym would add unintended emphasis, or when readers need the most familiar wording. A synonym should clarify or sharpen the message, not simply make the sentence look more varied.
If two options seem close, choose the one that best matches the audience and purpose of the sentence.
Choose a synonym only if it keeps the core idea of "schoolman" intact in the sentence you are editing.
Check whether the replacement sounds more formal, casual, emotional, technical, or forceful than the original word.
Read the full sentence after the swap. Keep the synonym only when the sentence becomes clearer or more precise.
Review note: Synonym lists are ranked with lexical data and reviewed for practical writing value. Use the comparison notes, sentence evidence, and source labels together; a high-ranking synonym can still be wrong when the audience, register, or grammar changes.
After choosing a replacement for "schoolman", read the sentence once for meaning and once for rhythm. The best synonym should feel natural in the full sentence, not only accurate in a word list.
If the synonym makes the sentence slower, vaguer, or more dramatic than intended, keep "schoolman" or choose a simpler alternative from the closest-match group.
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
4 total sentences available.
1597, Francis Bacon, Essays, London: John Jaggard, 1613, “Of Studies,” So if a mans wit be wandering, let him study Mathematicks; if his wit be not apt to distinguish, or finde difference, let him study the Schoole-men; if it be not apt to beat over matters, and to find out resemblances, let him study Lawyers cases. So every defect of the mind may have speciall receit.
Source: wiktionary
1764, James Murray, The History of Religion, 2nd edition, London: C. Henderson et al., Volume 1, Chapter 1, p. 65, Purgatory was a device of St. Austin’s in this century; but he both said and unsaid it, and at last, like a wise schoolman, left it doubtful.
Source: wiktionary
If that I did not know philosophy To be of all our vanities the motliest, The merest word that ever fool’d the ear From out the schoolman’s jargon, I should deem The golden secret, the sought “Kalon,” found, And seated in my soul.
Source: wiktionary
1913, Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, Appendix, “Socialism,” Too many thoroughly well-meaning men and women in the America of to-day glibly repeat and accept—much as medieval schoolmen repeated and accepted authorized dogma in their day—various assumptions and speculations by Marx and others which by the lapse of time and by actual experiment have been shown to possess not one shred of value.
Source: wiktionary
Closest matches include academic, academician, bookman, canonist, classicist.
Compare the replacement against real sentence context. This entry includes sample sentences so you can check tone, grammar, and meaning before swapping words.