Talent Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com

Where does talent come from?

Talent goes back to at least the 900s. It derives from the Greek tálanton, which referred to a unit of money or weight. At some point in its history, the meaning of talent evolved from “money” to “ability.” This change is thought to have been strongly influenced by a passage from the New Testament of the Bible often called the “Parable of the Talents.” In this story from the Gospel of Matthew, a rich guy entrusts his servants with his talents (money) while he’s away. Two of the servants invest the money and make him a profit, but a third servant just buries it and returns it when the boss gets back. The talents in the story are widely interpreted as representing natural abilities, with the moral being that you should use your abilities for good instead of hiding them.

Relatedly, talent is often described as God-given, which is another way of saying that talent is something that someone’s born with. A lot of people see this as being different from skill, which you have to work for. For example, a person might be said to have musical talent because they find it easy to learn the skill of playing an instrument. However, the two words are often used in much the same way, especially since any talent can be improved through practice.

Talent is often used in phrases that specify the type of talent, as in athletic talent, musical talent, and a talent for cooking. Talent can be used with an article (a, an, or the), as in a talent for fixing things, or without one, as in You’ve got talent.

Talent is also used to refer to a talented person, as in He’s a major talent in the field, or to refer to a group of talented people collectively, as in This event features international talent. More specifically, it can refer to actors or the people who appear on screen in some kind of production, as in We can’t start filming until the talent arrives.