didactic
intended to teach; often overly instructive
Root
- didact: teach
Other words with the didact root
- autodidact: a self-taught person
- didact: a teacher or instructive person
- didacticism: an instructive or preachy tendency
Didactic writing wants to teach, but it can start to feel like the lesson is louder than the story.
The novel became didactic whenever the characters stopped talking and the author started lecturing.
Didactic is not automatically bad. A clear lesson can help. The word becomes critical when teaching energy takes over the art, conversation, or story and leaves too little room for discovery.