What Does Didactic Mean
The adjective didactic is related to teaching. If something is designed or intended to teach people something we can call that thing didactic. For example, a story that is intended to teach something can be described as a didactic story. The adjective didactic is derived from the Greek ‘didaktikos’, which means skilful in training.
This term is also used to describe someone or something that is trying to teach something in an annoying way.
Definition of Didactic
Oxford Dictionary: “Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive”
American Heritage Dictionary:
- Intended to instruct.
- Morally instructive.
- Inclined to teach or moralize excessively.
Synonyms: instructive, educational, educative, informative, informational, doctrinal, and pedagogic
Antonyms: uninstructive, uninformative, etc.
The tale of the crow and the pitcher is a didactic story
Having explained the meaning of the word Didactic, let us now see how to use didactic in a sentence.
How to Use Didactic in a Sentence
You can use the word didactic in a sentence to describe something that is designed or intended to teach and instruct people. Since didactic is an adjective, it can be used both attributively and predicatively.
Didactic as an Attributive Adjective
– the adjective didactic occurs before a noun.
Ex: He collected didactic and moral poems and stories of different ethnicities.
Didactic as a Predicative Adjective
– the adjective didactic occurs after the noun and a linking verb.
Ex: The story of three little pigs is didactic in nature.
Examples Showing How to Use Didactic in a Sentence
1. The first prize was won by a didactic story which was written by a little-known author.
2. Professor Thompson’s lecture was supposed to be didactic, but most of his students found it confusing.
3. His novels increasingly became didactic after his religious conversion.
4. Although novels are not supposed to be didactic, they can be quite informative.
5. The elders of the tribe used didactic tales and songs to teach morals to the younger generations.
6. He created a didactic software to help students learn road signs.
7. Some fairy tales have strong didactic and moral character.
8. The books written by this famous author are considered to be moralistic or didactic work.
9. He only creates didactic films for educational channels.
10. The teacher showed us a didactic presentation about the drug abuse.
11. The poet tries to introduce a didactic element by referring to the impermanence of beauty.
12. At first glance, the poem appears to be didactic in nature; the sarcasm and irony only become clear towards the end of the poem.
13. All these tasks have a didactic purpose.
14. The book was didactic and was lacking in creativity.
15. His extremely didactic nature irritated his grandchildren.
16. The students were bored by the didactic nature of the lecture.
17. He was a great moral, philosophical and didactic writer, as well as a dramatist.
18. He realized that the lyrics of the songs were quite didactic.
Image Courtesy:
“The Crow and the Pitcher” by Annalee (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr
