Sciolist is a noun that refers to one who makes superficial displays of knowledge.

Our word of the day comes from the Latin word scire (SHE ray) which means ‘to know.’ But a sciolist isn’t simply someone who has knowledge. It’s someone who has superficial knowledge and is showy in displaying that knowledge.

Kyle thought he was impressing us by talking about what he’d learned about the law. But in fact, he was coming across like a sciolist who had just bought a dictionary.