jack of all trades, master of none

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

• Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  Play

Expanded form of jack of all trades, which originally was sometimes used as a term of praise. In the 21st century this phrase has itself been (rarely) expanded to a couplet: : Jack of all trades, master of none, : though oftentimes better than master of one.

19 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Chinese Mandarin: 萬金油 /万金油 (wànjīnyóu) — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Chinese Mandarin: 博而不精 (bó'érbùjīng) — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Czech: devatero řemesel, desátá bída — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Dutch: twaalf stielen, dertien ongelukken — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Finnish: jokapaikanhöylä — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Finnish: jokapaikan höylä — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• French: bon à tout, propre à rien — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• German: Hans Dampf in allen Gassen — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Japanese: 器用貧乏 (kiyōbinbō) — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Latin: Johannes factotum — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Persian: همهکاره و هیچکاره — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Polish: omnibus — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Portuguese: pau para toda obra — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Russian: подмасте́рье всех ремёсел, ма́стер ни одного́ (podmastérʹje vsex remjósel, máster ni odnovó) — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Russian: за всё берётся, да не всё удаётся (za vsjo berjótsja, da ne vsjo udajótsja) — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Russian: автофотовеломототелерадиомонтёр (avtofotovelomototeleradiomontjór) — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Spanish: aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Spanish: milusos — person who has a competent grasp of many skills
• Thai: รู้อย่างเป็ด — person who has a competent grasp of many skills