didactic

See also: didàctic

English

WOTD – 26 April 2010

Alternative forms

• didactick (obsolete)

Etymology

From French didactique, from Ancient Greek διδακτικός (didaktikós, “skilled in teaching”), from διδακτός (didaktós, “taught, learnt”), from διδάσκω (didáskō, “I teach, educate”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: dī-dăkˈtĭk, IPA^(key): /daɪˈdæk.tɪk/, /dɪˈdæk.tɪk/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: di‧dac‧tic

Adjective

didactic (comparative more didactic, superlative most didactic)

1. Instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate, especially with regard to morality.
   • 1837 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History

     Falling Bastilles, Insurrections of Women, thousands of smoking Manorhouses, a country bristling with no crop but that of Sansculottic steel: these were tolerably didactic lessons; but them [the Nobility] they have not taught.

   didactic poetry

   • (Can we date this quote by Macaulay and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     The finest didactic poem in any language.

2. Excessively moralizing.
3. (medicine) Teaching from textbooks rather than laboratory demonstration and clinical application.

Synonyms

1. (Intended to teach or demonstrate): educative, instructive

Derived terms

Derived terms

• didact
• didactical
• didactically
• nondidactic
• autodidactic

• didacticism
• didacticist
• didacticistic
• undidactic
• autodidacticism

Translations

instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate

• Azerbaijani: ibrətli
• Catalan: didàctic
• Danish: didaktisk, belærende
• Finnish: didaktinen (fi), opettavainen, kasvattava (fi)
• French: didactique (fr)
• German: didaktisch (de)
• Italian: didattico (it), didascalico (it) m
• Norwegian: didaktisk
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Persian: تعلیمی (fa) (ta'limi)
• Portuguese: didático (pt)
• Russian: наставнический (ru) (nastavničeskij), нравоучительный (ru) (nravoučitelʹnyj), дидакти́ческий (ru) (didaktíčeskij),
• Serbo-Croatian: didàktičkī (sh)
• Spanish: didáctico (es)
• Swedish: didaktisk (sv)
• Turkish: eğitici (tr), eğitsel (tr), didaktik (tr), öğretici (tr), öğretsel

excessively moralizing

• Danish: didaktisk, docerende
• Finnish: opettavainen
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: нравоучительный (ru) (nravoučitelʹnyj)

teaching from textbooks rather than laboratory demonstration and application

• Catalan: didàctic
• Finnish: teoreettinen (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: livresque (fr)
• Turkish: öğretici (tr)

Noun

didactic (plural didactics)

1. (archaic) A treatise on teaching or education.

Translations

treatise on teaching

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}