SCHOLAR

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does scholar mean? 

• SCHOLAR (noun)
  The noun SCHOLAR has 3 senses:

1. a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines

2. someone (especially a child) who learns (as from a teacher) or takes up knowledge or beliefs

3. a student who holds a scholarship

  Familiarity information: SCHOLAR used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCHOLAR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bookman; scholar; scholarly person; student

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

intellect; intellectual (a person who uses the mind creatively)

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

salutatorian; salutatory speaker (a graduating student with the second highest academic rank; may deliver the opening address at graduation exercises)

musicologist (a student of musicology)

bookworm; pedant; scholastic (a person who pays more attention to formal rules and book learning than they merit)

philomath (a lover of learning)

philosopher (a specialist in philosophy)

post doc; postdoc (a scholar or researcher who is involved in academic study beyond the level of a doctoral degree)

reader (a person who enjoys reading)

Renaissance man (a scholar during the Renaissance who (because knowledge was limited) could know almost everything about many topics)

generalist; Renaissance man (a modern scholar who is in a position to acquire more than superficial knowledge about many different interests)

scholiast (a scholar who writes explanatory notes on an author (especially an ancient commentator on a classical author))

medieval Schoolman; Schoolman (a scholar in one of the universities of the Middle Ages; versed in scholasticism)

Shakespearean; Shakespearian (a Shakespearean scholar)

Sinologist (a student of Chinese history and language and culture)

theologian; theologiser; theologist; theologizer (someone who is learned in theology or who speculates about theology)

valedictorian; valedictory speaker (the student with the best grades who usually delivers the valedictory address at commencement)

Vedist (a scholar of or an authority on the Vedas)

master (someone who holds a master's degree from academic institution)

academician; schoolman (a scholar who is skilled in academic disputation)

alum; alumna; alumnus; grad; graduate (a person who has received a degree from a school (high school or college or university))

Arabist (a scholar who specializes in Arab languages and culture)

bibliographer (someone trained in compiling bibliographies)

bibliophile; book lover; booklover (someone who loves (and usually collects) books)

Cabalist; Kabbalist (a student of the Jewish Kabbalah)

doctor; Dr. (a person who holds Ph.D. degree (or the equivalent) from an academic institution)

goliard (a wandering scholar in medieval Europe; famed for intemperance and riotous behavior and the composition of satirical and ribald Latin songs)

historian; historiographer (a person who is an authority on history and who studies it and writes about it)

humanist (a classical scholar or student of the liberal arts)

initiate; learned person; pundit; savant (someone who has been admitted to membership in a scholarly field)

Islamist (a scholar who knowledgeable in Islamic studies)

licentiate (holds a license (degree) from a (European) university)

Masorete; Masorite; Massorete (a scholar who is expert on the Masorah (especially one of the Jewish scribes who contributed to the Masorah))

mujtihad (an Islamic scholar who engages in ijtihad, the effort to derive rules of divine law from Muslim sacred texts)

Instance hyponyms:

Crichton; James Crichton; The Admirable Crichton (Scottish man of letters and adventurer (1560-1582))

Lorenzo de'Medici; Lorenzo the Magnificent (Italian statesman and scholar who supported many artists and humanists including Michelangelo and Leonardo and Botticelli (1449-1492))

Edmond Malone; Edmund Malone; Malone (English scholar remembered for his chronology of Shakespeare's plays and his editions of Shakespeare and Dryden (1741-1812))

Marcus Terentius Varro; Varro (Roman scholar (116-27 BC))

Derivation:

scholarly (characteristic of scholars or scholarship)

scholarship (profound scholarly knowledge)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone (especially a child) who learns (as from a teacher) or takes up knowledge or beliefs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

assimilator; learner; scholar

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

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

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

quick study; sponge (someone able to acquire new knowledge and skills rapidly and easily)

memoriser; memorizer (a person who learns by rote)

tutee (learns from a tutor)

dweeb; grind; nerd; swot; wonk (an insignificant student who is ridiculed as being affected or boringly studious)

Derivation:

scholarship (financial aid provided to a student on the basis of academic merit)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A student who holds a scholarship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

educatee; pupil; student (a learner who is enrolled in an educational institution)

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

Rhodes scholar (a student who holds one of the scholarships endowed by the will of Cecil J. Rhodes that enables the student to study at Oxford University)

Derivation:

scholarship (financial aid provided to a student on the basis of academic merit)

 Context examples 

St. John is an accomplished and profound scholar.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“As I have got my breath now, I think I'll measure this young scholar. Would you walk into the shop, Master Copperfield?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I had a very apt scholar.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I am a very poor Italian scholar.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I had been sitting near this door, finishing off the last sock, and trying to understand what he said to a new scholar, who is as stupid as I am.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

They can't go any faster than the ruck of their scholars, and I can set a faster pace for myself than they set for a whole schoolroom.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

My scholar has been left very poor, but he is hard-working and industrious.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Apt scholar that he was, they were equally apt teachers, never allowing him to linger long in error, and enforcing their teaching with their sharp teeth.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Somebody had placed her, several years back, at Mrs. Goddard's school, and somebody had lately raised her from the condition of scholar to that of parlour-boarder.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)