as in nerd
a person slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits
the candidate has an army of policy wonks ready to write for him a position paper on virtually any issue
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Recent Examples of wonk
Using a raw dataset from a national survey taken in early October, the wonk found Harris is ahead by about 6 percentage points.
—
Philip Elliott, TIME, 1 Nov. 2024
Now, Musk is seeking to move the issue out of the realm of policy wonks.
—Richard Nieva, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2024
At the same time, a growing chorus of policy wonks and public officials, including yours truly, have argued that Americans shouldn’t have to buy a college degree in order to find remunerative employment.
—Frederick Hess, Forbes, 18 Sep. 2024
Instead of adopting an oath of humility, economics has since churned out generations of model-wielding academics and policy wonks.
—Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak and Paul Swartz, TIME, 31 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for wonk 
Philip Elliott, TIME, 1 Nov. 2024
Now, Musk is seeking to move the issue out of the realm of policy wonks.
—Richard Nieva, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2024
At the same time, a growing chorus of policy wonks and public officials, including yours truly, have argued that Americans shouldn’t have to buy a college degree in order to find remunerative employment.
—Frederick Hess, Forbes, 18 Sep. 2024
Instead of adopting an oath of humility, economics has since churned out generations of model-wielding academics and policy wonks.
—Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak and Paul Swartz, TIME, 31 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for wonk
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Cite this Entry
“Wonk.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wonk. Accessed 30 Jan. 2025.
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