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jacks of all trades, masters of none

jacks of all trades, masters of none is the plural of jack of all trades.

Meaning of jack of all trades

Noun

jack of all trades (plural jacks of all trades)

  1. (idiomatic) One competent in many endeavours, sometimes regarded as not excelling in any of them.
    • Novv for the moſt part your Porter is either ſome broken Cittizen, vvho hath plaid Iack of all trades, ſome Pander, Broker, or Hangman, that hath plaid the knaue vvith all men, and for the more certainty his Embleme is a red Beard, to vvhich Sacke hath made his Noſe couſin German.1618, G[effray] M[ynshul], “Of Entertainment in Prison”, in Essayes and Characters of a Prison and Prisoners, London: […] [George Eld] for Mathew Walbancke, […], →OCLC, pages 23–24

Questions about jacks of all trades, masters of none

What is jacks of all trades, masters of none the plural of?
Jacks of all trades, masters of none is the plural of jack of all trades.

Words near jacks of all trades, masters of none in the dictionary

  1. Jacks in the green
  2. jacks into
  3. jacks it
  4. Jacks o' the clock
  5. jacks of all trades
  6. jacks of all trades, masters of none
  7. jacks of clubs
  8. jacks of diamonds
  9. jacks of hearts
  10. jacks of plate
  11. jacks of spades

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jacks of all trades, masters of none (page history and authors); jack of all trades (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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