Word.ws English Dictionary

absent-minded professor

absent-minded professor noun: a stereotypical fictional character whose focus on academic matters leads them to ignore or forget their surroundings.

Noun

absent-minded professor (plural absent-minded professors)

  1. A stereotypical fictional character whose focus on academic matters leads them to ignore or forget their surroundings.
    • An absent-minded professor, in going out of the gateway of his college, ran against a cow. In the confusion of the moment, he raised his hat, and exclaimed: " I beg your pardon, Madam." Soon after, he stumbled against a lady in the street. In sudden recollection of his former mishap, he called out...1864, The American Educational Monthly, volume 1, page 23
    • Although the absent-minded professor has appeared frequently in American humor it is safe to assert that the dire extremity of the learned man in the tragedy of A Defective Memory could hardly have been reached outside of Germany.1890, Charles Stuart Pratt, “Adolf Oberlauder, Humorist”, in The Cosmopolitan, volume 9, page 612
  2. (broadly) A person who tends to be oblivious to reality.
    • Snapshot: Jimmy, a third-grader, is an absent-minded professor before his time. He forgets everything, from his lunch box in the morning, to his raincoat1997, Edward M. Hallowell, When You Worry About the Child You Love, page 38
    • Judith: I call Jim "The Ditz" when he is the absent-minded professor.2003, Judith Sherven with James Sniechowski, Be Loved for Who You Really Are, page 172

Examples of absent-minded professor in a sentence

  • An absent-minded professor, in going out of the gateway of his college, ran against a cow.1864, The American Educational Monthly, volume 1, page 23:
  • Professor Oak, the world's leading Pokémon expert, is at once a genius and a bumbling, absent-minded professor2009, Mark I. West, The Japanification of children's popular culture: from godzilla to miyazaki, page 59:
  • […] a dreamy youth whose siblings teased him for being an absent-minded professor.2005, Amy Demorest, Psychology's grand theorists: how personal experiences shaped professional ideas, page 174:
  • “My brother, the absent-minded professor,” she said, motioning to me with her thumb.2009, Mitchell Graham, Dead Docket, page 274:

Forms of absent-minded professor

pluralabsent-minded professors
alternative form (rare)absentminded professor

Questions about absent-minded professor

What does absent-minded professor mean?
Absent-minded professor means a stereotypical fictional character whose focus on academic matters leads them to ignore or forget their surroundings.
How do you use absent-minded professor in a sentence?
An absent-minded professor, in going out of the gateway of his college, ran against a cow.
What part of speech is absent-minded professor?
Absent-minded professor is a noun.
What is the plural of absent-minded professor?
The plural of absent-minded professor is absent-minded professors.

Words near absent-minded professor in the dictionary

  1. absent treatments
  2. absent voter
  3. absent voters
  4. absent without leave
  5. absent-minded
  6. absent-minded professor
  7. absent-minded professors
  8. absent-mindedly
  9. absent-mindedness
  10. absent-mindednesses
  11. absentaneous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: absent-minded professor (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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