elementary, my dear Watson
Syllables: el·e·ment·a·ry, my dear Wat·son/ˌɛlɪˈmɛnt(ə)ɹi maɪ dɪə ˈwɒtsn̩//ˌɛləˈmɛnt(ə)ɹi maɪ dɪɹ ˈwɑts(ə)n/
elementary, my dear Watson phrase: used to emphasize that the speaker's deductive abilities are better than those of the listener.
Phrase
elementary, my dear Watson
- Used to emphasize that the speaker's deductive abilities are better than those of the listener.
- The possibility of signaling to the planet Mars is merely a question of elementary mathematics. […] It is such a simple little problem that any one should be able to take a pad and pencil and work it out in ten minutes. "Elementary, my dear Watson," as Sherlock Holmes was wont to say. "Elementary."1909 August 24, “Signaling to Mars. An elementary problem, says Professor [Edward Charles] Pickering, of Harvard.”, in The Times Dispatch, number 17,992, Richmond, Va.: [Times-Dispatch Pub. Co.]...
- "I fancy," said Psmith, "that this is one of those moments when it is necessary for me to unlimber my Sherlock Holmes system. […] Do you follow me, Comrade Maloney?" / "That's right," said Billy Windsor. "Of course." / "Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary," murmured Psmith.1909 October – 1910 February, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “In Pleasant Street”, in Psmith Journalist, London: A[dam] & C[harles] Black, […], published October 1923, →OCLC, page 140
Examples of elementary, my dear Watson in a sentence
- Elementary, my dear Watson—the smell of onions is unmistakable.1922 January, Agatha Christie, “Annette”, in The Secret Adversary, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published...
- Why wouldn't I call in the troops and end this once and for all?" / "Elementary, my dear Watson.2012, Ethan Cross, chapter 37, in The Shepherd, London: Arrow Books, Random House, →ISBN, part 3 (The Rod and the Staff), page 201:
Origin of elementary, my dear Watson
A statement apparently addressed by Sherlock Holmes, the fictional detective and protagonist of many stories by the British author Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), to his friend Dr. John H. Watson. Although Holmes occasionally states that his conclusions are “elementary” and often addresses his friend as “my dear Watson”, the exact phrase does not appear in any of Doyle’s stories. The closest is the following passage from “The Crooked Man” (1893): “‘I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson,’ said he [Holmes]. […] ‘Excellent,’ I [Watson] cried. ‘Elementary,’ said he.” The phrase probably originated from the play Sherlock Holmes (1899) by the American actor and playwright William Gillette (1853–1937), based on Doyle’s stories, which featured the phrases “Elementary, my dear fellow” and “my dear Watson”. The play was revised many times, and thus it has been suggested that over the course of many performances “Elementary, my dear Watson” was also spoken. Subsequently, the phrase was probably popularized by its use in the series of 14 Sherlock Holmes films (1939–1946) starring the British actors Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson.
Questions about elementary, my dear Watson
- What does elementary, my dear Watson mean?
- Elementary, my dear Watson means used to emphasize that the speaker's deductive abilities are better than those of the listener.
- How do you use elementary, my dear Watson in a sentence?
- Elementary, my dear Watson—the smell of onions is unmistakable.
- What part of speech is elementary, my dear Watson?
- Elementary, my dear Watson is a phrase.
- How do you pronounce elementary, my dear Watson?
- Elementary, my dear Watson is pronounced /ˌɛlɪˈmɛnt(ə)ɹi maɪ dɪə ˈwɒtsn̩/ (UK).
Words near elementary, my dear Watson in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: elementary, my dear Watson (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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