layman

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English lay +‎ man

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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  Rhymes: -eɪmən

Noun

layman (plural laymen)

1. layperson, someone who is not an ordained cleric or member of the clergy
2. by analogy, someone who is not a professional in a given field

   Carmen is not a professional anthropologist, but strictly a layman.

   Let me explain it to you in layman's terms.

3. a common person
4. a person who is untrained or lacks knowledge of a subject
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 221d.

     should he be held to be just a layman, or does he have some art?

5. a generally ignorant person
6. lay-sister or lay-brother, person received into a convent of monks, following the vows, but not being member of the order

Antonyms

• expert
• specialist
• professional

Derived terms

• in layman's terms

Related terms

• laity

Translations

someone who is not an ordained cleric

• Afrikaans: leek (af)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 俗家 (cmn) (sújiā)

• Czech: laik (cs) m
• Dutch: leek (nl) m
• Esperanto: laiko (eo)
• Finnish: maallikko (fi)
• French: laïc (fr) m
• German: Laie (de) m
• Greek: λαϊκός (el) (laïkós) m 
• Hungarian: laikus (hu)
• Icelandic: leikmaður (is) m

• Italian: laico (it), profano (it) m
• Japanese: 俗人 (ja) (ぞくじん, zokujin)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lekmann (nb) m

  Nynorsk: lekmann (nn) m

• Polish: laik (pl) m
• Portuguese: laico (pt), leigo (pt)
• Russian: мирянин (ru) (mirjánin) m 
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: световњак (sh) m, лаик (sh) m

  Roman: svetovnjak (sh) m, laik (sh) m

• Slovak: laik (sk)
• Spanish: laico (es) m, lego (es) m
• Swedish: lekman (sv)

someone who is not a professional in a given field

• Czech: laik (cs) m
• Dutch: leek (nl) m
• Esperanto: laiko (eo)
• Finnish: maallikko (fi)
• French: profane (fr) m and f
• German: Laie (de) m
• Greek: ερασιτέχνης (el) (erasitéchnis)
• Hebrew: הדיוט (he) (hedyot) m
• Hungarian: laikus
• Icelandic: leikmaður (is) m
• Italian: profano (it) m

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lekmann (nb) m

  Nynorsk: lekmann (nn) m

• Polish: laik (pl) m
• Portuguese: profano (pt) m, leigo (pt) m
• Russian: любитель (ru) (ljubítelʹ) m , дилетант (ru) (diletánt) m , неспециалист (ru) (nespecalíst) m , профан (ru) (profan) m 
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: лаик (sh) m

  Roman: laik (sh) m

• Slovak: laik (sk), amatér (sk)
• Spanish: profano (es) m, lego (es) m, aficionado (es) m
• Swedish: lekman (sv)