as in expert
a person with a high level of knowledge or skill in a field
a movie director who was widely regarded as the past master of suspense
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Recent Examples of past master
There is a certainty to her sentences that sets her alongside past masters (your William Trevors, your Anton Chekhovs) and a singular beauty to her observations.
—
Tomi Obaro, Vulture, 21 Nov. 2024
Coppola, a past master at directing actors, allows his performers – who include Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Aubrey Plaza, and Nathalie Emmanuel – to shamelessly ham it up.
—Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Sep. 2024
And he is positioned as the chief foreign luminary at the festival’s anniversary tribute to past master Ozu Yasujiro.
—Mark Schilling, Variety, 23 Oct. 2023
The fact that the company is designing a standalone robotaxi speaks to its failures in executing past master plans.
—Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 28 Feb. 2023
Does this past master of starting crazes see the Reddit phenomenon as a long-overdue democratization of the stock market, or a frenzy detached from the fundamentals of investing?
—Shawn Tully, Fortune, 22 Mar. 2021
Wonder, a past master of love songs, makes a demand that tests the output of every contemporary pop singer and every jaded fan.
—Armond White, National Review, 25 Nov. 2020
The locked-room mystery—not just a whodunnit but a how-done-it—pays homage to past masters such as John Dickson Carr and Gaston Leroux.
—The Economist, 18 Dec. 2019
When the ensemble made its first national tour, playing Orchestra Hall in September 1992, Marsalis and friends were trying to show that America needed a world-class jazz orchestra that could honor past masters while forging future ones.
—Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 16 Nov. 2019
Tomi Obaro, Vulture, 21 Nov. 2024
Coppola, a past master at directing actors, allows his performers – who include Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Aubrey Plaza, and Nathalie Emmanuel – to shamelessly ham it up.
—Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Sep. 2024
And he is positioned as the chief foreign luminary at the festival’s anniversary tribute to past master Ozu Yasujiro.
—Mark Schilling, Variety, 23 Oct. 2023
The fact that the company is designing a standalone robotaxi speaks to its failures in executing past master plans.
—Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 28 Feb. 2023
Does this past master of starting crazes see the Reddit phenomenon as a long-overdue democratization of the stock market, or a frenzy detached from the fundamentals of investing?
—Shawn Tully, Fortune, 22 Mar. 2021
Wonder, a past master of love songs, makes a demand that tests the output of every contemporary pop singer and every jaded fan.
—Armond White, National Review, 25 Nov. 2020
The locked-room mystery—not just a whodunnit but a how-done-it—pays homage to past masters such as John Dickson Carr and Gaston Leroux.
—The Economist, 18 Dec. 2019
When the ensemble made its first national tour, playing Orchestra Hall in September 1992, Marsalis and friends were trying to show that America needed a world-class jazz orchestra that could honor past masters while forging future ones.
—Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 16 Nov. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for past master
Noun
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This class, featuring insights from experts like Amy Cuddy and Sylvia Ann Hewlett, explores the concept of presence in communication and leadership, offering strategies to enhance executive presence, build confidence, and effectively manage performance anxiety for professional success.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
29 Apr. 2026
-
But security experts say the name may be a flag of convenience rather than a coherent group, and its claims should be treated with caution.—
Jill Lawless,
Los Angeles Times,
29 Apr. 2026
Noun
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This new iteration was partly handled by Room40 label boss Lawrence English, who reconstructed the original master tapes and blended them with recent performances by Lockwood and Vanessa Tomlinson, who plays the gong.—
Joshua Minsoo Kim,
Pitchfork,
28 Apr. 2026
-
Leaders of the gardens have been undergoing a master planning effort for more than a year in an effort to accommodate visitation of the botanical garden doubling to more than 300,000 people annually over the past decade.—
Ryan Gillespie,
The Orlando Sentinel,
28 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Van Bendegem, who would become a leading scholar on ultrafinitist logic, later addressed these concerns by considering a geometry in which a line or curve has width and is both finite and finitely divisible.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
29 Apr. 2026
-
Ted Kaptchuk, an acupuncturist and leading scholar of the placebo effect, has described this phenomenon in detail.—
Hannah Kerman,
STAT,
29 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Tech pioneer adept at shifting gears Atom Power was co-founded in 2015 by Kouroussis and Ryan Kennedy as a UNC Charlotte incubator, a project that started at the college before spinning off its own company and moving to the Lake Norman area.—
Charlotte Observer,
Charlotte Observer,
11 Mar. 2026
-
Meanwhile, Alouette has become an adept of dye recipes.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
5 Feb. 2026
Noun
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That won't mean much to most gamers or even most PC enthusiasts, but for memory-tuning wizards like 1usmus, more levers to pull in overclocking and timing adjustments may make more capable memory overclocks possible in the future.—
Jon Martindale,
PC Magazine,
24 Apr. 2026
-
Get ready for witches, munchkins and even the wizard.—
Stacey Zable,
USA Today,
23 Apr. 2026
Noun
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In positioning Mollestad as an exploratory team player, its six tracks reveal her chops well beyond that of a showboating virtuoso.—
Joshua Minsoo Kim,
Pitchfork,
24 Apr. 2026
-
Now the Catalan viol virtuoso returns to Zellerbach Hall with a program featuring his Hespèrion XXI and nearly three dozen international musicians in a concert weaving a range of musical traditions.—
Randy McMullen,
Mercury News,
16 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Standing on a circular base, her long peplos falls in both deep and shallow folds; it was meticulously sculpted by a single artist, rather than a workshop, to appear lifelike with natural depth and contour.—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
26 Apr. 2026
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Alice Webb, who died in 2022, was a local artist and art teacher who touched many lives through her watercolors, oils and etchings.—
Janet Kusterer,
Baltimore Sun,
26 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The classes will be led by fan favorite instructors like running and strength coach Rebecca Kennedy, cycling guide Ally Love and cardio and strength guru Rad Lopez.—
Greta Cross,
USA Today,
27 Apr. 2026
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Bambaataa exuded a guru aspect, the source of his virtue being, in some sense, his fidelity to home.—
Doreen St. Félix,
New Yorker,
25 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Past master.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/past%20master. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
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