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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

maven.

An expert in a given field; also, a person who is interested in and knowledgeable about a particular activity or thing; an aficionado.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmeɪvn̩/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmeɪv(ə)n/General-American
  1. An expert in a given field; also, a person who is interested in and knowledgeable about a particular activity or thing; an aficionado.

    US
Where this word comes from

From Yiddish מבֿין (meyvn, “connoisseur, expert, know-it-all”), from Hebrew מֵבִין (mevín, “one who understands, connoisseur, expert”), from הֵבִין (hevín, “to understand”). The word is said to have been popularized by its use in an advertising campaign for Vita Herring launched in the United States in 1964, which had a character called the “beloved [herring] maven” promoting the product.

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maven studiomaven workshello, maven

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.