Adept (noun) By Deane Barker • September 11, 2022 • Definition: someone who is very skilled at something Why I Looked It Up So, this is a weird one, because I absolutely knew the usage and definition of “adept” as a verb. But in I Got Schooled I found this: […] there is a belief among certain academics that a subject is less efficiently learned from an adept than from someone who is studying it or has just finished studying it. This is “adept” as a noun. This brought me back to my teenage years playing Dungeons and Dragons. There was a character class called a “Cleric,” and the first two levels were: Acolyte Adept An “acolyte” is a religious assistant. Given the alliteration, I guess I always thought “Adept” had some religious connotation. I always remember those two character levels and thought they were somehow related: than an “adept” was a…pastor, or something? Nope. No religious connection at all. (This reminds me of how I thought Brain Trust was pejorative because of a comment my dad used to make.)