CHARLATAN

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does charlatan mean? 

• CHARLATAN (noun)
  The noun CHARLATAN has 1 sense:

1. a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes

  Familiarity information: CHARLATAN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHARLATAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

charlatan; mountebank

Hypernyms ("charlatan" is a kind of...):

beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "charlatan"):

craniologist; phrenologist (someone who claims to be able to read your character from the shape of your skull)

quack (an untrained person who pretends to be a physician and who dispenses medical advice)

 Context examples 

They will say that you are an infernal liar and a scientific charlatan, exactly as you and others said of me.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I got this cordial at Rome, of an Italian charlatan—a fellow you would have kicked, Carter.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I fancy there will be a large audience, for Waldron, though an absolute charlatan, has a considerable popular following.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)