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# historian

«historian» in Mova's school dictionary: **a person who studies history and writes about the past…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a historian, historians)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A historian is a person who studies history and writes about the past, using evidence such as documents, objects and buildings. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/historian/#m1)

2) (school) A historian is anyone who does the work of history, like pupils asking questions about the past and checking sources. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/historian/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In history lessons pupils «think like historians»: they look at primary and secondary sources, ask who made them and why, and compare different accounts. It tells the reader that knowledge of the past comes from evidence. Phrases: «a local historian», «historians believe», «a military historian», «an art historian».

### examples

- Historians study letters and diaries to learn about the past. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/historian/#x1)
- A local historian showed us old photos of our town. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/historian/#x2)
- Historians disagree about why the war began. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/historian/#x3)
- Today we are historians, looking at clues from Roman Britain. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/historian/#x4)
- The historian wrote a book about the Victorian railways. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/historian/#x5)
- Historians use evidence, not guesses. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/historian/#x6)
- To what extent Hook is to blame for his tactics on this occasion is for the historian to decide. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/historian/#x7)

### note

Both «a historian» and «an historian» are seen; «a historian» is more common today. Related: history, historic (important in history), historical (about history). Trap: a historian is not the same as a «storyteller»; historians must check evidence.

### In the corpora

- [Real numbers are only estimates, so historians give ranges, not exact counts like a game screen.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/24-population-and-cities/9/)
- [Historians call this the Columbian Exchange.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/26-food-and-farming-around-the-world/5/)
- [After 1492 plants and animals crossed the Atlantic in both directions, which historians call the Columbian Exchange.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/26-food-and-farming-around-the-world/11/)
- [Historians name early times after the best tool material: the Stone Age, then the Bronze Age, then the Iron Age.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/2-the-first-farms-and-towns/19/)
- [Historians add that the Qing court was in fact curious about Western things but refused Britain's terms.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/57-china-the-qing-and-the-opium-wars/13/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «historian» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/historian/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.