Word Direct Answers

What does "talent" mean?

Talent: 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 93 3. Inclination; will; disposition; desire. [Obs.] They rather counseled you to your talent than to your profit. Chaucer.

Additional senses

  1. 2.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. Dryden. His talents, his accomplishments, his graceful manners, made him generally popular. Macaulay. See Genius.

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