as in amateurism
a lack of the level of skill associated with an expert or professional
no charge of dilettantism could ever be leveled at English physicist Henry Cavendish, whose immense wealth allowed him to devote his life to scientific pursuits
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dilettantism
Noun
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Last summer’s House settlement, which permits schools to directly pay their athletes roughly $20 million this year across all sports, drove a final stake through the college amateurism model.—
Justin Williams,
New York Times,
25 Mar. 2026 -
What struck Rigby Assad wasn’t the amateurism of the inquiry but its internal logic.—
Adam Ciralsky,
Vanity Fair,
19 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Their design was unpolished, even primitive, seemingly to convey a sense of slapdash amateurishness.—
Gary Baum,
HollywoodReporter,
11 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Experts say multinationals and foreign investors still want a share of India's consumption story — but the country's inability to create more white-collar jobs is undermining that narrative.—
Priyanka Salve,
CNBC,
2 Apr. 2026
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When their inability to compromise led to a government shutdown in 2011, Standard & Poor’s downgraded this country’s debt from AAA to AA for the first time in roughly a century.—
Stu Strumwasser,
Fortune,
1 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Accused of political incompetence, Bani Sadr was impeached by parliament in 1981 and subsequently fled into exile.—
Roxane Razavi,
The Conversation,
2 Apr. 2026
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Weaponized incompetence, or the practice of being so helpless that the labor simply falls on someone else, has long been a feature of domestic life.—
Catherina Gioino,
Fortune,
1 Apr. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Dilettantism.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dilettantism. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026.
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