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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

dilettante

/ˈdɪlɪˌtɑnt/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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What does dilettante mean?

noun

  1. An amateur, someone who dabbles in a field out of casual interest rather than as a profession or serious interest.

adjective

  1. Pertaining to or like a dilettante.
More meanings (1)

noun

  1. (derogatory) A person with a general but superficial interest in any art or a branch of knowledge.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˈdɪlɪˌtɑnt/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Other dictionary pronunciations

/ˈdɪlɪˌtænt//ˌdɪlɪˈtɑnt//ˌdɪlɪˈtænt//ˌdɪlɪˈtɑnteɪ/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

There was in him none of that antiquarian frivolity that we convey by the word “dilettante”.
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) ChestertonThe wisdom of Father BrownProject Gutenberg ebook #223
This would not deter those in whom the impulse was strong and genuine, but would tend to exclude the dilettante.
Bertrand RussellProposed Roads to FreedomProject Gutenberg ebook #690
More book examples (3)
All this admitted, Newman enjoyed his journey, when once he had fairly entered the current, as profoundly as the most zealous dilettante.
Henry JamesThe AmericanProject Gutenberg ebook #177
He continued a dilettante, never quite abandoning his art, but working at it fitfully, and talking more about it than working at it.
William Dean HowellsThe Rise of Silas LaphamProject Gutenberg ebook #154
Behind all its curiousness, so attractive alike to sage and dilettante, lie its dim dangers, throwing across us shadows at once grotesque and awful.
VariousThe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial IssueProject Gutenberg ebook #206