Meanings
comparative more didactic · superlative most didactic · alternative didactick
- Instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate, especially with regard to morality.
didactic poetry
2 more examples
Falling Bastilles, Insurrections of Women, thousands of smoking Manorhouses, a country bristling with no crop but that of Sansculottic steel: these were tolerably didactic lessons; but them [the Nobility] they have not taught.
1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number)The finest didactic poem in any language.
1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLCSynonyms: educative, instructive
- Excessively moralizing.
- medicineTeaching from textbooks rather than laboratory demonstration and clinical application.
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveInstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate, especially with regard to morality.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectiveinstructive (especially excessively)
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Ancient Greekδιδακτικός“skilled in teaching”
- Frenchdidactique
- Englishdidactic
From French didactique, from Ancient Greek διδακτικός (didaktikós, “skilled in teaching”), from διδακτός (didaktós, “taught, learnt”), from διδάσκω (didáskō, “to teach, educate”). By surface analysis, didact + -ic.
More words from French, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans didakties
- didaktiesinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Bulgarian дидактичен
- дидактичен (didaktičen)instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Catalan didàctic, didàctic
- didàcticinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- didàcticteaching from textbooks rather than laboratory demonstration and application
Chinese Mandarin 教学
- 教学 (jiàoxué)instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Czech didaktický
- didaktickýinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Danish didaktisk, belærende
- didaktiskinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- belærendeinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- didaktiskexcessively moralizing
- docerendeexcessively moralizing
Dutch didactisch
- didactischinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Esperanto didaktika
- didaktikainstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Finnish didaktinen, opettavainen
- didaktineninstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- opettavaineninstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- kasvattavainstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- opettavainenexcessively moralizing
- teoreettinenteaching from textbooks rather than laboratory demonstration and application
French didactique, livresque
- didactiqueinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- livresqueteaching from textbooks rather than laboratory demonstration and application
German didaktisch
- didaktischinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Italian didattico, didascalico
- didatticoinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- didascalicoinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Latin didascalicum
- didascalicuminstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Norwegian didaktisk
- didaktiskinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Persian تعلیمی, آموزشی
- تعلیمی (ta'limi)instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- آموزشیinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Polish dydaktyczny
- dydaktycznyinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Portuguese didático
- didáticoinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Russian наста́внический, нравоучи́тельный
- наста́внический (nastávničeskij)instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- нравоучи́тельный (nravoučítelʹnyj)instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- дидакти́ческий (didaktíčeskij)instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- назида́тельный (nazidátelʹnyj)instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- нравоучи́тельный (nravoučítelʹnyj)excessively moralizing
- настави́тельный (nastavítelʹnyj)excessively moralizing
- ме́нторский (méntorskij)excessively moralizing
Slovak didaktický
- didaktickýinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Spanish didáctico
- didácticoinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Swedish didaktisk
- didaktiskinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Turkish eğitici, eğitsel
- eğiticiinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- eğitselinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- didaktikinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- öğreticiinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- öğretselinstructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
- öğreticiteaching from textbooks rather than laboratory demonstration and application
Ukrainian дидактичний
- дидактичний (dydaktyčnyj)instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with didactic
Cite this entry
didactic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/didactic
“didactic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/didactic. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “didactic,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/didactic.
Source: didactic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.