Synonyms for Renaissance Man



I've been poking around the net trying to find synonyms for "renaissance man" which indicates someone that is proficient at many skills. I was thinking "jack of all trades" but that has a negative connotation that the individual is not good at any of them, but capable. Any ideas?



Answer



A single, and slightly formal, word which captures "Renaissance man" is "polymath".


From Vocabulary.com, for example:



A polymath is a person who knows a lot about a lot of subjects. If your friend is not only a brilliant physics student but has also published a poetry collection and won prizes at political debates, you can describe her as a polymath.


You can think of a polymath as a classic "Renaissance man." Imagine Leonardo da Vinci, for example, who was not only an amazing artist, but also an engineer, inventor, mathematician, and much more. When a person's knowledge covers many different areas, he or she is a polymath.



Again from Macmillan:



polymath: someone who has a lot of knowledge about many different subjects



Merriam-Webster:



polymath: someone who knows a lot about many different things



And the Wordnik:



Polymath is Greek for renaissance person; someone with the ability to do many remarkable things because they are experts across many disciplines.



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