Word.ws English Dictionary

policy wonk

policy wonk noun: a person who studies or develops strategies and policies, especially one who has a keen interest in and aptitude for technical details.

Noun

policy wonk (plural policy wonks)

  1. A person who studies or develops strategies and policies, especially one who has a keen interest in and aptitude for technical details.
    • Mondale's passionate attachment to the issue reflects his thralldom to the policy wonks and wise men of the Washington establishment.1984 Oct. 29, New Republic, p. 16
    • Kirk O'Donnell, 42, who recently joined the campaign staff, is a unique combination of Boston pol and "policy wonk" who is best known in Washington as Tip O'Neill's former right-hand man, the guy who sold the speaker's program to the congressional troops.1988 July 25, Joe Klein, “'President Dukakis': what the First Hundred Days Could be Like”, in New York Magazine, volume 21, number 29, page 27

Examples of policy wonk in a sentence

  • Clinton and Gore . . . . both are new-ideas moderates with a policy wonk's love of the intricacies of complex issues.1992 July 20, Walter Shapiro, “Gore A Hard-Won Sense of Ease”, in Time:
  • But access to ministers is not the only reason right-of-centre policy wonks are excited.2010, The Economist, Jul-Aug, p. 25

Forms of policy wonk

pluralpolicy wonks

Questions about policy wonk

What does policy wonk mean?
Policy wonk means a person who studies or develops strategies and policies, especially one who has a keen interest in and aptitude for technical details.
How do you use policy wonk in a sentence?
Clinton and Gore . . . . both are new-ideas moderates with a policy wonk's love of the intricacies of complex issues.
What part of speech is policy wonk?
Policy wonk is a noun.
What is the plural of policy wonk?
The plural of policy wonk is policy wonks.

Words near policy wonk in the dictionary

  1. policy patterns
  2. policy rate
  3. policy rates
  4. policy shop
  5. policy shops
  6. policy wonk
  7. policy wonks
  8. policy-maker
  9. policy-makers
  10. policy-making
  11. policyholder

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: policy wonk (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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