Autodidact, Polyglot, and Polymath

I had seen these terms all referring to sort of the same thing, or being used in the same context: to mean someone who was very smart.

However, they have specific meanings

• Autodidact: someone who is self-taught; also used to refer to someone who is able to absorb complicated subjects with no formal instruction; occasionally “automath”

• Polyglot: someone who knows many languages (“glot” means “tongue”)

• Polymath: someone who has very broad knowledge of many subjects

Some patterns there (which is probably why I confused them):

• auto: a Greek prefix for “independent” or “self”
• poly: a Greek prefix for “many”
• math: from the Greek “mathema” which means “what one learns”

Why I Looked It Up

I had seen (and confused) the terms for years.