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Einstein

eins·tein

UK/ˈajnˌsʈajn/ US/ˈaɪnˌstaɪn/ fairly common informal

noun

1.

physicist born in Germany who formulated the special theory of relativity and the general theory of relativity; Einstein also proposed that light consists of discrete quantized bundles of energy (later called photons) (1879-1955)

Synonyms
2.

someone who has exceptional intellectual ability and originality

  • “Mozart was a child genius”
  • “he”
  • “s no Einstein”
Synonyms

Origin

From German ein Stein, "one stone", coined by scientists in recent decades, but with tongue-in-cheek tacit acknowledgment of the homonymy with einstein and Einstein; "a pun playing with the famous scientist's name and the German term "ein Stein" for "one stone".

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.