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theoretician

theoretician

3 8.7
A person who works with ideas and rules rather than practical tasks
  • noun
  • /ˌθiəˈrɛtɪʃən/
translation icon : teórico
  • There is a difference of opinion among theoreticians and practitioners regarding curricular development.
  • a brilliant theoretician
  • leading theoretician
  • become a theoretician

According to Pincus and other researchers and theoreticians, the overt part is the stuff we can see.

Examples

  • You're a brilliant theoretician, but you've never actually brought a new drug to market before, right?

  • As a renowned theoretician, she focused on developing new models to explain complex scientific phenomena.

  • The most interesting current theoretician in this respect is Stanley Fish.

    Academic text (1990)
  • So in some sense we're not trying to say become theoreticians, we're trying to say these two things are connected.

  • Wise people who you know, would be the, you know, theoreticians, the scientists, the people just staying in their study and doing their thing.

  • In this area of biomechanical engineering, Banerjee has distinguished himself as both a theoretician and an experimentalist.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Isocrates was one of its earliest known theoreticians; Demosthenes, one of its great practitioners.

    Academic text (1991)
  • In such a case, one should carefully listen to the voices of vigorous, unbiased theoreticians.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Education experiences many trends, counter-trends, and would-be trends that excite theoreticians and generate many articles.

    Academic text (2011)
  • During the conference, the theoretician presented his ideas about the future of artificial intelligence in greater detail.

Synonyms

theorist
vstheoretician
75 5.8

A person who creates and explains ideas about subjects like science, politics, or art

is mainly concerned with theory rather than practical applications
idealogue
vstheoretician
9.1

A person who strongly supports a set of ideas and tries to spread them

is mainly concerned with theory rather than practical applications
theorizer
vstheoretician
7.4

A person who makes ideas to explain things in science or art

is more focused on formal theory work rather than casual speculation

Antonyms

120 4.0

A person who works in a job that needs special training

How Theoretical

theoretician
3 8.7
applied scientist
  • Specialized
4.0
practitioner
120 4.0

Surface Forms

theoretician singular
theoreticians plural

Morphology

theoretician = theoretic (transparent) = theoretic + ian

Formed by adding the agentive suffix '-ian' to the adjective 'theoretic', yielding a person who works with or develops theories; learners who know 'theoretic' or 'theory' can readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Theoretician comes from the word theory, which goes back to an old Greek word meaning 'to look' or 'see'. So a theoretician is someone who 'looks at' and studies ideas to build explanations, instead of doing the practical work.