Word Study
masterful
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Adjective masterful has 1 sense
- masterful(s = adj.all) consummate, masterly, virtuoso - having or revealing supreme mastery or skill; "a consummate artist"; "consummate skill"; "a masterful speaker"; "masterful technique"; "a masterly performance of the sonata"; "a virtuoso performance"
CIDE DICTIONARY
masterful, a.
- Inclined to play the master; domineering; imperious; arbitrary. Dryden. [1913 Webster]
- Having the skill or power of a master; indicating or expressing power or mastery. [1913 Webster]"His masterful, pale face." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
masterful, adj.
1 imperious, domineering.
2 masterly.
1 imperious, domineering.
2 masterly.
Usage
Normally used of a person, whereas masterly is used of achievements, abilities, etc.
Derivative
masterfully adv. masterfulness n.
THESAURUS
masterful
Daedalian, U, absolute, absolutist, absolutistic, accomplished, adept, adroit, apt, arbitrary, archetypical, aristocratic, arrogant, artistic, authoritarian, authoritative, autocratic, bossy, bravura, brilliant, classic, clean, clever, consummate, coordinated, crack, crackerjack, cunning, cute, daedal, deft, despotic, developed, dexterous, dextrous, dictatorial, diplomatic, doctrinaire, dogmatic, dominating, domineering, elitist, excellent, exemplary, expert, exquisite, fancy, feudal, finished, first-rate, fully developed, good, goodish, graceful, grinding, handy, high and mighty, high-and-mighty, high-handed, hubristic, imperative, imperial, imperious, ingenious, lordly, magisterial, magistral, master, masterly, matchless, mature, matured, model, monocratic, neat, no mean, oppressive, overbearing, overruling, overweening, peerless, peremptory, perfected, polished, politic, preeminent, professional, proficient, quick, quintessential, quite some, ready, refined, repressive, resourceful, ripe, ripened, self-willed, severe, skilled, skillful, slick, some, statesmanlike, strict, stylish, superb, superior, superlative, suppressive, supreme, tactful, the compleat, the complete, transcendent, tyrannical, tyrannous, virtuoso, well-done, workmanlike
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