learned

English Online Dictionary. What means learned‎? What does learned mean?

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English lerned, lernd, lernyd, equivalent to learn +‎ -ed, which replaced the earlier lered (“taught”), from Old English (ġe)lǣred, past participle of lǣran (“to teach”). Learn formerly had the meaning “to teach”, which is now found only in nonstandard speech, as well as its standard meaning of “to learn”.

Alternative forms

• learnèd, learnéd

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlɜːnɪd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈlɝnɪd/

Adjective

learned (comparative more learned, superlative most learned)

1. Having much learning, knowledgeable, erudite; highly educated.

   Synonyms: brainy, erudite, knowledgeable, scholarly, educated; see also Thesaurus:learned

   Antonyms: unlearned, ignorant, stupid, thick, uneducated; see also Thesaurus:ignorant

   • 1854, Charles Edward Pollock, Lake v. Plaxton, 156 Eng. Rep. 412 (Exch.) 414; 10 Ex. 199, 200 (Eng.)

     My learned Brother Cresswell directed the jury to make the calculation […]
2. (law, formal) A courteous description used in various ways to refer to lawyers or judges.
3. Scholarly, exhibiting scholarship.

Usage notes

• In very rare instances, this adjectival sense is sometimes spelled with a grave accent, learnèd. This is meant to indicate that the second ‘e’ is pronounced as /ɪ/ or /ə/, rather than being silent, as in the verb form. This spelling is largely restricted to poetry and other works in which it is important that the adjective’s disyllabicity be made explicit.
• The superlative forms learnedest and learnedst are archaic and obsolete, respectively.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Past participle of learn.

Alternative forms

• learnt (UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand; alternative in Canada; rarely used in American English)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /lɜːnd/
• (US) enPR: lûrnd, IPA^(key): /lɝnd/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)nd

Verb

learned

1. (North America, New Zealand and dialectal English) simple past and past participle of learn

Adjective

learned (comparative more learned, superlative most learned)

1. Derived from experience; acquired by learning.

   Antonym: unlearned

Translations

References

Further reading

• “learned”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “learned”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Darleen, Darlene, Leander, red lane, relaned