Gladwellian

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adjective

Of or relating to Malcolm Gladwell (born 1963), Canadian journalist, author, and speaker.

Scrabble 16

Meanings

adjectiveGladwellian (comparative more Gladwellian, superlative most Gladwellian)

comparative more Gladwellian · superlative most Gladwellian

  1. Of or relating to Malcolm Gladwell (born 1963), Canadian journalist, author, and speaker.

    Jake: That is a tremendous amount of Malcolm Gladwellian logic jumps. Xander: Well you spent ten thousand hours fucking my life up, so bring Lainey to the party.

    2015, Leslye Headland, Sleeping with Other People
    2 more examples

    Sheffrin has written a book of Gladwellian sweep, one that synthesizes and translates large swaths of fascinating social science research, while also enlivening the analysis with engaging stories from the trenches of tax policy and public finance.

    2014 June 28, “Tax Fairness and Folk Justice”, in National Tax Journal, page 487

    The idea that huge, intractable social issues such as sexism and racism could be affected in such simple ways had a powerful intuitive appeal, and hinted at the possibility of equally simple, elegant solutions. If anything united [Diederik] Stapel’s diverse interests, it was this Gladwellian bent.

    2017 February 1, Stephen Buranyi, “The high-tech war on science fraud”, in The Guardian

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

Gladwellian. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gladwellian

MLA

“Gladwellian.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gladwellian. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Gladwellian,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gladwellian.

Source: Gladwellian on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.