"book-learning" meaning in English

See book-learning in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: book learning [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} book-learning (uncountable)
  1. Theoretical or academic knowledge acquired by reading books or through formal education, as opposed to practical or empirical knowledge of real life and the real world, gained through experience, or natively as street smarts, common sense, or intuition. Tags: uncountable Synonyms: book knowledge, booklore, reading knowledge Related terms: book smart, book-teaching Translations (knowledge acquired from books): kirjaviisaus (Finnish), bóklist [feminine] (Icelandic), ynsagh-lioaragh [masculine] (Manx), boklist [feminine, masculine] (Norwegian Bokmål), bóklist [feminine] (Old Norse), wiedza książkowa [feminine] (Polish), conhecimento teórico [masculine] (Portuguese)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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          "ref": "1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 29.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 97:",
          "text": "They are like some wise men, who, learning to know each planet by its Latin name, have quite forgotten such small heavenly constellations as Charity, Forbearance, Universal Love, and Mercy, […] and who, looking upward at the spangled sky, see nothing there but the reflection of their own great wisdom and book-learning.",
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          "ref": "1892, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XI, in The American Claimant, New York, N.Y.: Charles L[uther] Webster & Co., →OCLC, page 117:",
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          "text": "That's what college ought to be for, instead of for turning out a lot of B.A.s, so chock full of book-learning and vanity that there ain't room for anything else.",
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        {
          "word": "book knowledge"
        },
        {
          "word": "booklore"
        },
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          "word": "reading knowledge"
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      "tags": [
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
          "word": "kirjaviisaus"
        },
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          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "lang_code": "is",
          "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "bóklist"
        },
        {
          "code": "gv",
          "lang": "Manx",
          "lang_code": "gv",
          "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "ynsagh-lioaragh"
        },
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          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "lang_code": "nb",
          "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "boklist"
        },
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          "lang_code": "non",
          "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "bóklist"
        },
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          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "wiedza książkowa"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "lang_code": "pt",
          "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "conhecimento teórico"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "book-learning"
}
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      "word": "book smart"
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          "text": "That's what college ought to be for, instead of for turning out a lot of B.A.s, so chock full of book-learning and vanity that there ain't room for anything else.",
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          "reading"
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          "empirical"
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          "real life"
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          "natively",
          "natively"
        ],
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          "word": "book knowledge"
        },
        {
          "word": "booklore"
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          "word": "reading knowledge"
        }
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
      "word": "kirjaviisaus"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "lang_code": "is",
      "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "bóklist"
    },
    {
      "code": "gv",
      "lang": "Manx",
      "lang_code": "gv",
      "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "ynsagh-lioaragh"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "lang_code": "nb",
      "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "boklist"
    },
    {
      "code": "non",
      "lang": "Old Norse",
      "lang_code": "non",
      "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "bóklist"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "wiedza książkowa"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "lang_code": "pt",
      "sense": "knowledge acquired from books",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "conhecimento teórico"
    }
  ],
  "word": "book-learning"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-14 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-02-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 59dc20b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.