savant

/səˈvɑnt/

/səˈvɑnt/

Other forms: savants

You know that girl in your school with a 4.0 GPA? She is a savant in the making. A savant is someone over-the-top smart, a scholar. It might take a savant only five minutes to do an entire math test.

Savant is the French word for "learned" and it goes back to the Latin word sapere, "to be wise." In English, a savant can be someone is who is wise and learned in general, or someone who is extremely skilled in a particular area, like your little brother who can rattle off the first three hundred digits of pi.

Definitions of savant

1. noun

   someone who has been admitted to membership in a scholarly field
   synonyms: initiate, learned person, pundit

   types:

   polyhistor, polymath

   a person of great and varied learning

   type of:

   bookman, scholar, scholarly person, student

   a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines