dilettante
noun
dil·et·tante
ˈdi-lə-ˌtänt 
-ˌtant;
ˌdi-lə-ˈtänt,
-ˈtant
plural dilettantes or dilettanti
ˌdi-lə-ˈtän-tē
-ˈtan-tē
1
: a person having a superficial interest in an art or a branch of knowledge : dabbler
Mr. Carroll often criticizes the superficial lives of the dilettantes … who mingle in New York.—
Mark Stevens
Mark StevensWhitman ran an amateurish campaign … and was painted as an aristocratic dilettante.—Eleanor Clift
Eleanor Clift2
dated
: an admirer or lover of the arts
It was unparalleled, undreamed-of, that I, Humphrey Van Weyden, a scholar and a dilettante, if you please, in things artistic and literary, should be lying here on a Bering Sea seal-hunting schooner.—Jack London
Jack London
dilettante
adjective
Synonyms
Examples of dilettante in a Sentence
I recently spent a week in Alaska trying to learn how to be a mountaineer. I did not succeed very well, and the details are not very interesting. I finished the course (I was enrolled in a course) thinking that perhaps I am better off remaining a slightly-above-average mountain dilettante. An occasional rock climber.
—Jason Lee Steorts, National Review, 18 Aug. 2008
Being a powerhouse herself in ways that make today's feminist superwomen look like dilettantes, she inevitably clashed with star directors like Maurice Tourneur and Ernst Lubitsch.
—Molly Haskell, New York Times Book Review, 6 June 1999
Most of the articles published in Naval History reflect time-consuming research and investigation. The efforts are not the work of dilettantes, but of professional and semiprofessional historians.
—Michael M. Bergfeld, Naval History, July/August 1997
You can always tell a true expert from a dilettante.
she writes about art not from the point of view of an artist but from that of a committed dilettante
Jason Lee Steorts, National Review, 18 Aug. 2008
Being a powerhouse herself in ways that make today's feminist superwomen look like dilettantes, she inevitably clashed with star directors like Maurice Tourneur and Ernst Lubitsch.
—Molly Haskell, New York Times Book Review, 6 June 1999
Most of the articles published in Naval History reflect time-consuming research and investigation. The efforts are not the work of dilettantes, but of professional and semiprofessional historians.
—Michael M. Bergfeld, Naval History, July/August 1997
You can always tell a true expert from a dilettante.
she writes about art not from the point of view of an artist but from that of a committed dilettante
Recent Examples on the Web
He will be called a fascist and a coward and a dilettante.
—The Editors, National Review, 31 Oct. 2024
Back in the 1930s, Cocteau was dubbed a dilettante.
—Harriet Quick, theweek, 17 July 2024
Bruce Wayne: To the public at large, Bruce Wayne is a shallow dilettante, apparently wasting his parents’ vast fortune on frivolous pursuits and hedonistic pleasures.
—Denise Petski, Deadline, 20 June 2024
Under the impression that Tom is good friends with his son, Dickie Greenleaf, a trust-fund dilettante who has decided to live in Italy to paint and dillydally instead of working with his father as planned, Mr. Greenleaf offers Tom money to go to Italy and convince the playboy to come home.
—Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 4 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for dilettante 
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
The Editors, National Review, 31 Oct. 2024
Back in the 1930s, Cocteau was dubbed a dilettante.
—Harriet Quick, theweek, 17 July 2024
Bruce Wayne: To the public at large, Bruce Wayne is a shallow dilettante, apparently wasting his parents’ vast fortune on frivolous pursuits and hedonistic pleasures.
—Denise Petski, Deadline, 20 June 2024
Under the impression that Tom is good friends with his son, Dickie Greenleaf, a trust-fund dilettante who has decided to live in Italy to paint and dillydally instead of working with his father as planned, Mr. Greenleaf offers Tom money to go to Italy and convince the playboy to come home.
—Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 4 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for dilettante
Articles Related to dilettante
Dictionary Entries Near dilettante
Cite this Entry
“Dilettante.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dilettante. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
dilettante
noun
dil·et·tante
ˈdil-ə-ˌtänt
-ˌtant;
ˌdil-ə-ˈtänt(-ē),
-ˈtant(-ē)
plural dilettantes or dilettanti
-ˈtänt-ē
-ˈtant-ē
1
: an admirer or lover of the arts
2
: a person who has a shallow interest in an art or area of knowledge
dilettante
adjective
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share