Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A person with a cognitive or developmental impairment, such as mental retardation or autism, who exhibits extraordinary ability in a highly specialized area, such as arithmetic or memorization.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A person who exhibits an
extraordinary ability in one subject (oftenmathematics ) whilst beingmentally retarded in all other fields.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun person who is mentally retarded in general but who displays remarkable aptitude in some limited field (usually involving memory)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[French : idiot, idiot + savant, learned.]
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word idiot savant.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.