Word.ws English Dictionary

cookbookery

cookbookery noun: the application of (especially mathematical) techniques learned by rote, without proper understanding or consideration.

Noun

cookbookery (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory) The application of (especially mathematical) techniques learned by rote, without proper understanding or consideration.
    • In this degenerate laboratory work, in this cookbookery of a ritual of recipes, the aim is not to do an honest experiment but to get the "right" answer.1964, Caribbean quarterly: Volumes 10-11
    • Most of the New Math is just what the Old Math was — cookbookery. The difference is that the cookbooks are newer, more up to date — which may be a good thing, if cookbookery is what you want.1968, Anglo American Corporation of South Africa, Optima: Volume 18

Origin of cookbookery

From cookbook + -ery.

Questions about cookbookery

What does cookbookery mean?
Cookbookery means the application of (especially mathematical) techniques learned by rote, without proper understanding or consideration.
What part of speech is cookbookery?
Cookbookery is a noun.

Words near cookbookery in the dictionary

  1. cookaloris
  2. cookalorises
  3. Cookamidgera
  4. Cookardinia
  5. cookbook
  6. cookbookery
  7. cookbookish
  8. cookbooks
  9. cookdom
  10. Cooke
  11. Cooke County

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cookbookery (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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