Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A student who studies excessively; a grind.
- noun One who studies an issue or topic thoroughly or excessively.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun derogatory An overly
studious person, particularlystudent ; anerd . - noun by extension A
policy wonk or otherintellectual expert .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an insignificant student who is ridiculed as being affected or boringly studious
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I Know that the policy wonk is the best on EVERY issue.
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But university leaders are confident that "wonk" - which they define as "an intellectually curious person" or "a knowledgeable Washington insider" - captures something essential about American.
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But university leaders are confident that "wonk" - which they define as "an intellectually curious person" or "a knowledgeable Washington insider" - captures something essential about American.
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But university leaders are confident that "wonk" - which they define as "an intellectually curious person" or "a knowledgeable Washington insider" - captures something essential about American.
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But university leaders are confident that "wonk" - which they define as "an intellectually curious person" or "a knowledgeable Washington insider" - captures something essential about American.
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But university leaders are confident that "wonk" - which they define as "an intellectually curious person" or "a knowledgeable Washington insider" - captures something essential about American.
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But university leaders are confident that "wonk" - which they define as "an intellectually curious person" or "a knowledgeable Washington insider" - captures something essential about American.
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I became acquainted with someone I call my plant "wonk" -- a walking human thinktank of botany named Eric.
Danielle Crittenden: Help, My Botanical Clock Is Ticking! 2009
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Neither a headline-seeker nor a party rebel, he's best described as a wonk, a workhorse, a doer.
The War on Wyden Kimberley A. Strassel 2012
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What typifies the wonk is their utter unawareness of the world and people around them.
stpeter commented on the word wonk
Know spelled backwards.
December 17, 2006
garyth123 commented on the word wonk
a word a day on wonk
December 2, 2008
amacleod03 commented on the word wonk
A disparaging term for a studious or hardworking person. The Oxford English Dictionary asserts that the word wonk derives from “a term commonly applied by foreigners to the ordinary Chinese dog. From the Ningpo pronunciation wou n kyi, of the above two characters.�?
July 27, 2009