Word.ws English Dictionary

sciolist

Syllables: sci·o·list/ˈsaɪəlɪst/

sciolist noun: one who exhibits only superficial knowledge; a self-proclaimed expert with little real understanding.

Noun

sciolist (plural sciolists)

  1. One who exhibits only superficial knowledge; a self-proclaimed expert with little real understanding.
    • Near-synonyms: dabbler, dilettante, jack of all trades, know-it-all, fachidiot
    • Men of true ſcience modestly admit the truth on the authority of the divine word; the ſciolist in imitation of the peasant, whoſe obſtinacy is the natural reſult of pride, and ignorance, will not believe if he does not comprehend.1808, E[dmund] B[urke], A Treatise on the First Principles of Christianity, in which all Difficulties Stated by Ancient and Modern Sceptics, are Dispassionately Discussed, Halifax, Nova Scotia...

sciolist meaning in Tamil

sciolist in Tamil

வெள்ளறிவினர், புல்லறிவானர்

Examples of sciolist in a sentence

  • But M. [Édouard] Dujardin is a poet; "vers libres" in the hands of a sciolist are the most intolerably easy and annoying of poetical exercises.1893, Arthur Symons, “The Decadent Movement in Literature”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 87, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers...
  • I name them together as the sciolists and the socialists.1907, Religious Education Association, The Materials of Religious Education: Being the Principal Papers Present at, and the Proceedings of...
  • Sir, I can only say I believe that he is a sciolist.1963, Federal Assembly of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Debates of the Federal Assembly, volume 19, Salisbury: Printed by the Parliamentary...
  • Walter is […] a dupe to the half-baked speculations of every sciolist from [René] Descartes down to ‘Coglionissimo Borri’, and a pack of other dunces.2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, London, New York, N.Y.: Allen Lane, →ISBN, page 290:

Synonyms of sciolist

All synonyms of sciolist

Forms of sciolist

pluralsciolists

Origin of sciolist

From Late Latin sciolus + -ist. First attested at the beginning of the 17th century.

Questions about sciolist

What does sciolist mean?
Sciolist means one who exhibits only superficial knowledge; a self-proclaimed expert with little real understanding.
What is sciolist in Tamil?
Sciolist in Tamil is வெள்ளறிவினர், புல்லறிவானர். See Sciolist meaning in Tamil.
How do you use sciolist in a sentence?
But M. [Édouard] Dujardin is a poet; "vers libres" in the hands of a sciolist are the most intolerably easy and annoying of poetical exercises.
What part of speech is sciolist?
Sciolist is a noun.
How do you pronounce sciolist?
Sciolist is pronounced /ˈsaɪəlɪst/ (UK).
What is the plural of sciolist?
The plural of sciolist is sciolists.

Words near sciolist in the dictionary

  1. sciographs
  2. sciography
  3. Sciola
  4. sciolism
  5. sciolisms
  6. sciolist
  7. sciolistic
  8. sciolistical
  9. sciolistically
  10. sciolists
  11. sciolous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sciolist (page history and authors); sciolist (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sciolist.wav.

Cite this entry: “sciolist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sciolist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.