savant

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /sæˈvɑnt/ UK /ˈsævənt/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a person of great learning, or one with extraordinary skill in one field

The chess savant memorized every game he had ever played.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a person of great learning,... scholar sage expert intellectual authority master prodigy

Opposites

ignoramus dunce

Word family

Related forms savvy sapientsavoir-faire

Etymology

From French savant ('learned, knowing'), the present participle of savoir ('to know'), from Latin sapere ('to be wise, taste').

savant French sapere Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

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# savant

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /sæˈvɑnt/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈsævənt/

## Meanings
1. a person of great learning, or one with extraordinary skill in one field

## Examples
- The chess savant memorized every game he had ever played.

## Synonyms
- scholar
- sage
- expert
- intellectual
- authority
- master
- prodigy

## Antonyms
- ignoramus
- dunce

## Related Forms
- savvy
- sapient
- savoir-faire

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: savant
- Root: sapere

## Etymology
From French savant ('learned, knowing'), the present participle of savoir ('to know'), from Latin sapere ('to be wise, taste').

## AI Etymology
Savant comes from French savant ('learned, knowing'), the present participle of savoir ('to know'), from Latin sapere ('to be wise, taste'). The historical chain includes French savant and Latin sapere. The quoted older senses, "learned, knowing", "to know", and "to be wise, taste", supply the semantic anchors for savant. The formation is best read as participial and borrowed: the word savant carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a person of great learning, or one with extraordinary skill in one field". Related English forms include savvy, sapient, and savoir-faire. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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savant

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