di·dac·tic

[dahy-dak-tik]
adjective
1.
intended for instruction; instructive: didactic poetry.
2.
inclined to teach or lecture others too much: a boring, didactic speaker.
3.
teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson.
4.
didactics, ( used with a singular verb ) the art or science of teaching.
Also, di·dac·ti·cal.


Origin:
1635–45; < Greek didaktikós apt at teaching, instructive, equivalent to didakt(ós) that may be taught + -ikos -ic

di·dac·ti·cal·ly, adverb
di·dac·ti·cism, noun
non·di·dac·tic, adjective
non·di·dac·ti·cal·ly, adverb
un·di·dac·tic, adjective


2. pedantic, preachy, donnish, pedagogic.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To didactic
00:10
Didactic is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
Collins
World English Dictionary
didactic (dɪˈdæktɪk) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
adj
1.  intended to instruct, esp excessively
2.  morally instructive; improving
3.  (of works of art or literature) containing a political or moral message to which aesthetic considerations are subordinated
 
[C17: from Greek didaktikos skilled in teaching, from didaskein to teach]
 
di'dactically
 
adv
 
di'dacticism
 
n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

didactic
1650s, from Fr. didactique, from Gk. didaktikos "apt at teaching," from didaktos "taught," from didaskein "teach," from PIE base *dens- "wisdom, to teach, learn." Related: Didactically; didacticism.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

didactic di·dac·tic (dī-dāk'tĭk)
adj.
Of or relating to medical teaching by lectures or textbooks as distinguished from clinical demonstration with patients.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

didactic

of literature or other art, intended to convey instruction and information. The word is often used to refer to texts that are overburdened with instructive or factual matter to the exclusion of graceful and pleasing detail so that they are pompously dull and erudite. Some literature, however, is both entertaining and consciously didactic, as, for example, proverbs and gnomic poetry. The word is from the Greek didaktikos, "apt at teaching."

Learn more about didactic with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Example sentences
As a work of art, it seems contrived and didactic.
Better still, and unlike his more didactic colleagues, he has usually managed
  to be funny too.
She can afford to be less didactic, more charmingly candid, a little scattier.
Though more didactic, Huerta's story of a family's hitting the glass ceiling of
  upward mobility is quite powerful.
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