talent
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (2)talents
- natural abilities or qualitiesSynonyms: endowmentgiftnatural endowmentType of natural abilityKinds flair, bent, raw talent
- a person who possesses unusual innate ability in some field or activityType of expert
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Noun marked ability or skill
- Spanish
- talento
- French
- talent
- German
- Talent
- Italian
- talento
- Portuguese
- talento
- Turkish
- yetenek
- Russian
- тала́нт talánt
- Arabic
- مَوْهِبَة mawhiba
- Chinese
- 才能 cáinéng
- Japanese
- 才能 sainō
26 more languages
- Dutch
- talent
- Polish
- talent
- Swedish
- talang
- Greek
- ταλέντο talénto
- Korean
- 재능 jaeneung
- Indonesian
- bakat
- Vietnamese
- tài năng
- Hungarian
- tehetség
- Portuguese (PT)
- talento
- Chinese (Trad.)
- 才能 cáinéng
- Albanian
- dhunti
- Catalan
- talent
- Czech
- talent
- Danish
- talent
- Esperanto
- talento
- Finnish
- lahjakkuus
- Georgian
- ნიჭი nič̣i
- Icelandic
- hæfileiki
- Latvian
- talants
- Lithuanian
- talentas
- Norwegian
- talent
- Romanian
- talent
- Serbo-Croatian
- talent
- Swahili
- talanta
- Welsh
- talent
- Yiddish
- טאַלאַנט talant
Noun historical unit of weight and money
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: F., fr. L. talentum a talent (in sense 1), Gr. τάλαντον a balance, anything weighed, a definite weight, a talent; akin to τλῆναι to bear, endure, τολμᾶν, L. tolerare, tollere, to lift up, sustain, endure. See Thole, transitive verb, Tolerate.
1. Among the ancient Greeks, a weight and a denomination of money equal to 60 minae or 6,000 drachmae. The Attic talent, as a weight, was about 57 lbs. avoirdupois; as a denomination of silver money, its value was £243 15s. sterling, or about $1,180 (using 1900 values).
Rowing vessel whose burden does not exceed five hundred talents.— Jowett (Thucid.).
2. Among the Hebrews, a weight and denomination of money. For silver it was equivalent to 3,000 shekels, and in weight was equal to about 93¾ lbs. avoirdupois; as a denomination of silver, it has been variously estimated at from £340 to £396 sterling, or about $1,645 to $1,916 (ca. 1900). For gold it was equal to 10,000 gold shekels.
3. Inclination; will; disposition; desire. obsolete
They rather counseled you to your talent than to your profit.— Geoffrey Chaucer
4. Intellectual ability, natural or acquired; mental endowment or capacity; skill in accomplishing; a special gift, particularly in business, art, or the like; faculty; a use of the word probably originating in the Scripture parable of the talents (Matt. xxv. 14-30).
He is chiefly to be considered in his three different talents, as a critic, a satirist, and a writer of odes.— John Dryden
His talents, his accomplishments, his graceful manners, made him generally popular.— Thomas Babington Macaulay
Synonyms: Ability; faculty; gift; endowment. See Genius.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54