Meaning & use
mastery
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Meanings
noununcountable
Very high skill or complete knowledge of a subject or activity, gained through long practice.
Grammar: Uncountable and usually followed by of: mastery of French.
Patterns
- mastery of something
Her mastery of the piano amazed the judges.
It takes years to achieve mastery of a new language.
The chef showed total mastery of knife skills.
noununcountableformal
Control or power over a person, thing or situation.
Grammar: Often used with over: mastery over the seas.
Patterns
- mastery over something
The empire sought mastery over the trade routes.
He had no mastery over his own fears.
Their mastery of the seas lasted for centuries.
noununcountable
In education, the stage at which a learner has fully learned a skill or topic.
Grammar: Used in teaching: students must show mastery before moving on.
Patterns
- demonstrate mastery
Pupils must show mastery of fractions before moving on.
The test checks mastery of core skills.
Mastery learning lets students repeat lessons until they succeed.
Common combinations
- mastery of a skill
- Mastery of a skill takes patience.
- achieve mastery
- She worked daily to achieve mastery.
- complete mastery
- He has complete mastery of the subject.
- demonstrate mastery
- Students demonstrate mastery by passing a final exam.
- technical mastery
- The violinist showed technical mastery.
Synonyms and how they differ
- expertise
- Expertise is specialist knowledge or skill, whereas mastery implies being at the top level of skill.
- command
- Command stresses confident control of something like a language, but mastery implies deeper skill.
- proficiency
- Proficiency means being competent, and mastery means going well beyond that.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: mastery or mystery?
mastery vs mystery
Mystery is something unexplained, whereas mastery is great skill; they differ in the vowel.
Practice
After ten years of practice, her ___ of the cello was clear to everyone in the hall.
Choose one answer.
Mastery of means great skill in. Mystery looks similar but means something that is not explained.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mastery”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.