layman
/ˈleɪmən/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.93 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Someone who is not a professional in a given field.
noun
noun
Lay-sister or lay-brother, person received into a convent of monks, following the vows, but not being member of the order.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "Carmen is not a professional anthropologist, but strictly a layman."
- "Let me explain it to you [[in layman's terms|in layman's terms]]."
- "The layman, perhaps, is not fully aware to what extent even the popular reputations of scientists and scholars are made by that class and are inevitably affected by its views on subjects which have little to do with the merits of the real achievements."
- "should he be held to be just a layman, or does he have some art?"
Etymology
From Middle English layman, lay man, equivalent to lay (“non-clergy”) + man. Cognate with Old Frisian lēkmann, lēkmonn (“layman”), obsolete Dutch leekeman (“layman”), Old High German leihman (“layman”), Danish lægmand (“layman”), Swedish lekman (“layman”), Norwegian lekmann (“layman”), Icelandic leikmaður (“layman”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: layman