Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Self-taught.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of, relating to, or being an autodidact; self-taught

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or having the characteristics of an autodidact

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek αὐτοδίδακτος (autodidaktos), from αὐτός (autos, "self") + διδάσκω (didaskō, "I teach").

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Examples

  • While my understanding of dance technique falls into the "autodidactic" category (IANAD), it's more difficult to perform multiple pirouettes with the legs parallel--as the gymnasts (and jazz dancers) do them--than with the raised leg turned out.

    Sports 2008

  • I have strong autodidactic tendencies that some find amusing; as they do the fact I had to look up "autodidactic" in the dictionary.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2010

  • i am autodidactic which is the key to being able to do all the things i do, and know and all that, and why others dont believe it.

    Prager on the 2010 election 2010

  • In some ways, the self-taught writer could be called the Southern godmother of feminism, an autodidactic intellectual who carved out her singular role as a woman to be reckoned with on her on terms, in her own idiosyncratic ways, in the most hallowed and male-dominated coven in the country -- the Halls of Congress -- a generation before Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton emerged on the national stage.

    Jeff Biggers: "Office Holders Are Desperate": 180 Years Before HuffPo, Anne Royall's Wicked Blogs Held DC Accountable Jeff Biggers 2010

  • In some ways, the self-taught writer could be called the Southern godmother of feminism, an autodidactic intellectual who carved out her singular role as a woman to be reckoned with on her on terms, in her own idiosyncratic ways, in the most hallowed and male-dominated coven in the country--the Halls of Congress--a generation before Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton emerged on the national stage.

    Jeff Biggers: "Office Holders Are Desperate": 180 Years Before HuffPo, Anne Royall's Wicked Blogs Held DC Accountable Jeff Biggers 2010

  • The middle decades of the nineteenth century saw an explosion of traveling lecturers in the United States thanks to the lyceum movement, an autodidactic effort that catered to the hunger for knowledge of a self-educating populace.

    LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY JR. ROY MORRIS 2010

  • She enjoys passing on her knowledge - much of it autodidactic - to her pupils, but insists the most enjoyable aspect of her classes is the wisdom that she soaks up from the students themselves.

    Gabriela Epstein: Color, Form and Energy 2008

  • In some ways, the self-taught writer could be called the Southern godmother of feminism, an autodidactic intellectual who carved out her singular role as a woman to be reckoned with on her on terms, in her own idiosyncratic ways, in the most hallowed and male-dominated coven in the country -- the Halls of Congress -- a generation before Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton emerged on the national stage.

    Jeff Biggers: "Office Holders Are Desperate": 180 Years Before HuffPo, Anne Royall's Wicked Blogs Held DC Accountable Jeff Biggers 2010

  • That star student Hermione Granger seems perfectly self-sufficient with her own autodidactic learning and can conjure enough spells to consistently rescue her two hapless male counterparts.

    Ruth Starkman: Harry Potter: College Drop Out? Ruth Starkman 2010

  • That star student Hermione Granger seems perfectly self-sufficient with her own autodidactic learning and can conjure enough spells to consistently rescue her two hapless male counterparts.

    Ruth Starkman: Harry Potter: College Drop Out? Ruth Starkman 2010

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