learned
/ˈləːnɪd
/adjective
1(Of a person) having acquired much knowledge through study: a learned, generous, and notoriously absent-minded man...
- And he was learned and perspicacious enough to see that the rigidity which the old Labour party embraced would entail its own reaction.
- I have studied under learned professors in stately halls of learning.
- The ideal would be to study those very same books under the auspices of a learned teacher.
1.1Showing, requiring, or characterized by learning; scholarly: an article in a learned journal...
- Data from scientists in the field were published in learned society journals.
- It is good to have this learned and scholarly life back in circulation.
- Founded in 1660, the Society has three roles, as the UK academy of science, as a learned Society, and as a funding agency.
Synonyms
scholarly, erudite, well educated, knowledgeable, well read, widely read, well versed, well informed, lettered, cultured, cultivated, civilized, intellectual, intelligent, clever, academic, literary, bookish, highbrow, studious, sage, wise, sagacious, discerning, donnish, cerebral, enlightened, illuminated, sophisticated, pedantic;
esoteric, obscure, recondite
informal brainy, genius
rare sapient
1.2British Used as a courteous description of a lawyer in certain formal contexts: my learned friend...
- The first of them is to grant the mandatory relief that my learned friends sought in the claim form and, as far as I am aware, maintained throughout the hearing.
- My learned friend's solicitors have simply failed to follow the procedure.
- Could I go for the moment to section 30B, which is behind our learned friend the appellant's materials.
Derivatives
learnedly
/ adverb ...- The story… is told not only clearly and learnedly, but also very sympathetically.
- Mr Jefferson discourses learnedly on the origins of the mechanical arts used in the device, tracing them all the way back to ancient Persia.
- He discusses learnedly the question whether the witches were really carried through the air corporeally or not.
learnedness
- I am, of course, not suggesting that I find this degree of learnedness surprising in a biologist.
- And again, it's far from clear what sort of learnedness makes for the best law teachers.
- This is another of his fantasies; he confuses wonkiness with learnedness and wisdom.
Origin
Middle English: from learn, in the sense 'teach'.