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didactic

/daɪˈdæktɪk/
/daɪˈdæktɪk/
IPA guide

When people are didactic, they're teaching or instructing. This word is often used negatively for when someone is acting too much like a teacher.

When you're didactic, you're trying to teach something. Just about everything teachers do is didactic: the same is true of coaches and mentors. Didactic is often used in a negative way. If you heard that a movie is overly didactic, that's probably not good. Most people want to see a story and be entertained when going to the movies, and if it feels like the movie is just telling you what to think, that's didactic in a bad way.

Definitions of didactic
  1. adjective
    instructive (especially excessively)
    synonyms: didactical
    informative, instructive
    serving to instruct or enlighten or inform
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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘didactic'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
Commonly confused words

didactic / pedantic

Both words relate to teaching, but didactic teaches a lesson and pedantic just shows off the facts.

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