Definition of: learning

(lûr′ning) noun
1. Knowledge obtained by study or from instruction; scholarship; erudition.
2. The act of acquiring knowledge or skill.
3. Psychol. The modification of behavior following upon and induced by interaction with the environment and as a result of experiences leading to the establishment of new patterns of response to external stimuli. Synonyms: education, erudition, instruction, knowledge, lore, scholarship, study, training, tuition. Learning may be acquired by one's unaided industry, but any full education must be the result in great part of instruction, training, and personal association. Study is emphatically what one does for himself, and in which instruction and tuition can only point the way. Lore is used only in poetic style, for accumulated knowledge, as of a people or age, or in a general sense for learning or erudition. Information is knowledge of fact, real or supposed, derived from persons, books, or observation; it is regarded as casual and haphazard. Learning is much higher, being wide and systematic knowledge, the result of long, assiduous study; erudition is recondite learning secured only by extraordinary industry, opportunity, and ability. See EDUCATION, KNOWLEDGE, SCIENCE, WISDOM. Antonyms: ignorance, illiteracy. See synonyms for IGNORANT.