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Proficient vs Learned - What's the difference?

proficient | learned |

As adjectives the difference between proficient and learned

is that proficient is good at; skilled; fluent; practiced, especially in relation to a task or skill while learned is (poetic).

As a noun proficient

is an expert.

proficient

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Good at; skilled; fluent; practiced, especially in relation to a task or skill.
    • He was a proficient writer with an interest in human nature.
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 5
    • By constant playing and experimenting with these he learned to tie rude knots, and make sliding nooses; and with these he and the younger apes amused themselves. What Tarzan did they tried to do also, but he alone originated and became proficient .

    Synonyms

    * (good at) skilled, fluent, practiced

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An expert.

    • Synonyms

    * (expert) expert; see also

    Related terms

    * profit * profitability * profitable * profiteer * proficiency

    External links

    * * ----

    learned

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) lerned, from (etyl)

    Verb

    (head)
  • (US) (learn): taught

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having much learning, knowledgeable, erudite; highly educated.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.iii:
    • the learned Merlin, well could tell, / Vnder what coast of heauen the man did dwell [...].
  • * 1854 , Charles Edward Pollock, Lake v. Plaxton , 156 Eng. Rep. 412 (Exch.) 414; 10 Ex. 199, 200 (Eng.)
    • My learned Brother Cresswell directed the jury to make the calculation [...].
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year=2011 , month=Feb , author=Jess Lourey , coauthors= , title=A Pyramid Approach to Novel Writing , volume=124 , issue=2 , page=30-32 , magazine=Writer , passage=The book opens with the Time Traveler dining with learned peers in late 1800s England, where he is trying to convince them that he has invented a time machine. }}
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year=2011 , month=Spring , author=Jill Lepore , coauthors= , title=How Longfellow Woke the Dead , volume=80 , issue=2 , page=33-46 , magazine=American Scholar , passage=HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW used to be both the best-known poet in the English-speaking world and the most beloved, adored by the learned and the lowly ... }}
    My learned friend (a formal, courteous description of a lawyer)
    Alternative forms
    *
    Usage notes
    * This adjectival sense of this word is sometimes spelled with a grave accent. This is meant to indicate that the second ‘e’ is pronounced as , rather than being silent, as in the verb form. This usage is largely restricted to poetry and other works in which it is important that the adjective’s disyllabicity be made explicit.
    Synonyms
    * (having much knowledge) brainy, erudite, knowledgeable, scholarly, educated * See also
    Antonyms
    * (having little knowledge) ignorant, stupid, thick, uneducated
    Derived terms
    * learnedly * learnedness

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Alternative forms

    * learnt

    Verb

    (head)
  • (learn)

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Derived from experience; acquired by learning.
    • Everyday behavior is an overlay of learned behavior over instinct.

    Statistics

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    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * * English heteronyms