From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsavantsav‧ant /ˈsævənt $ səˈvɑːnt, sæ-/ noun [countable] formal 1 INTELLIGENTsomeone who knows a lot about a subject2 someone who has mental problems and may have lower intelligence than average, but who can do one thing very well, such as adding numbers very quickly
Examples from the Corpus
savant• At the start of his research into savants there were only 50 known cases in the world.• Well, my father and grandfather would have agreed with you; but modern savants have rejected the concept.• Ignorance and ingratitude, such is the lot of the savant.• At the other extreme sit the savants at Morgan Stanley & Co.• What Tughlukabad was to the military of fourteenth-century Delhi, the suburb of Hauz Khas was to the savants.Origin savant (1700-1800) French present participle of savoir “to know” 