single word requests - More emphatic term for "Expert"?


I've hit a wording problem in the controls for a game that I'm writing.


I need two nouns with increasing emphasis for someone highly skilled in a given area.
"Expert" is an obvious choice, so I need a second noun which is:



  • More emphatic than "Expert" - it must imply being extremely capable.

  • Not gendered. (This is why I've rejected the most obvious choice, "Master".)

  • Obvious in its meaning, once read.

  • Not too long - screen space is limited.

  • Carrying connotations of skill but not necessarily experience.

  • Applicable to many different areas of skill - professional skills (science, accounting) and personal (leadership, martial arts)


It is acceptable to use two words, so there could be a modifying adjective, but in that case space demands that they both be quite short. ("Very skilled" would just work, but "World-famous expert" is out.)


(Edited to make criteria clearer) If it matters, the setting is 60s to 80s Bond-movie-villain's lair.


Some characters are clones grown by a mad scientist and programmed for their tasks, so terms like "veteran" which imply experience as well as skill won't work.


Alternatively, I could use "Expert" in the top slot, to mean extreme skill... in which case I need a replacement word which is less emphatic than Expert, but carries the same connotations and matches the conditions above. It will still need to mean "more than average skill" - the default is "professional competence", and the two terms I use need to describe two increasing levels above this.



Answer



Have you considered using the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition? In particular, his ranking is:



  1. Novice

  2. Advanced beginner

  3. Competent

  4. Proficient

  5. Expert


Note that each level has a specific, quotable, empirically-driven definition that allows one to (more-or-less) unambiguously identify which category one belongs to.


That might be helpful if your application is a self-survey which is otherwise vulnerable to differences of interpretation: a standard model has the benefit of normalization (to a larger extent than, say, “on a scale of one to ten. . . .”).


That said, since perfect standardization is an impossible ideal, if you implement this, you might consider offering an "other" option.


Alternatively, the word specialist comes to mind.


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