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A person who is a jack of all trades; he has done almost everything, knows everything, has gone everywhere, and is quite experienced.

Is there any single word for such a person?

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  • That kind of person is likely to be a bore.
    – Centaurus
    Commented Jun 20, 2015 at 20:47
  • The Most Interesting Man in the World. That is, what @centaurus said. Commented Jun 21, 2015 at 6:07

5 Answers 5

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Polymath (renaissance man), handyman, ...

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    On second thought... this doesn't address the "gone everywhere" thing. Well traveled and knowledgeable.... hum. Globe trotting polymath?
    – user116032
    Commented Jun 20, 2015 at 20:38
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Renaissance man: (n.) a man with many talents or areas of knowledge
Factotum: (n.) a handyman who does all kinds of work
Tinker: (n.) a person skilled at various minor tasks
Mr. Fixit: (n.) colloq for tinker
Pantologist: (n.) a person who has a a systematic view of all human knowledge
Globetrotter (n.) a person who travels regularly or frequently

Different words to describe each trait. I guess Renaissance man is the most befitting your description.

Source: Dictionary.com

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    Hey Jimmy, welcome to ELU. While your terms & definitions are certainly apt responses to this OP, they yet lack source citations (in plain, rather than hypertext). Please edit in (don't use a sharpie, it'll mess up your monitor screen) so I can up-vote this answer. ;-)
    – user98990
    Commented Jun 21, 2015 at 0:06
  • It seems like you cited from different sources, if they all came from a single source you could write: "Source: Oxford Dictionaries" at the end and be done with it. You really should cite where you took these definitions from, adding a direct link is helper friendly but not essential.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Jun 21, 2015 at 5:31
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You could say he's cosmopolitan, worldly, or a real man about town.

Vocabulary.com gives this definition of worldly:

You can use the adjective worldly to describe people who have knowledge of many topics or experience in many areas.

You don't have to travel the globe to be worldly; reading and talking about many things with knowledge and enthusiasm is worldly too.

Worldly often describes individuals who are sophisticated and well-rounded in education, travel, and experiences.

Wordnik gives the definition of the adjective cosmopolitan as:

So sophisticated as to be at home in all parts of the world or conversant with many spheres of interest: a cosmopolitan traveler.

The American Heritage Dictionary (AHD) defines man about town as:

A sophisticated, socially active man who frequents fashionable places.

The common thread among all these words is that the person has either literally or figuratively traveled so much that he's exposed himself to many ideas and experiences (cosmopolitan is, in its original Greek, literally "a person of the world", as opposed to a specific place).

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    First time I've heard a *Jack of all trades' described as a 'man about town'! Perhaps we are dealing in too many metaphors.
    – WS2
    Commented Jun 20, 2015 at 19:16
  • @WS2: I think maybe Dan was taking the expression in the question as written: jack of all trends, instead of assuming the OP meant jack of all trades.
    – Drew
    Commented Jun 20, 2015 at 19:19
  • @WS2 I focused more on the "been everywhere, done everything, knows a lot, is quite experienced" aspects of the OP, as opposed to the "jack of all trades part". I think my answer is quite apt for a person with those characteristics.
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Jun 20, 2015 at 19:20
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multipotentialite

My Definition.
A multipotentialite is a person who has many different interests and creative pursuits in life. Multipotentialites have no “one true calling” the way specialists do. Being a multipotentialite is our destiny.

“An educational and psychological term referring to a pattern found among intellectually gifted individuals. [Multipotentialites] generally have diverse interests across numerous domains and may be capable of success in many endeavors or professions, they are confronted with unique decisions as a result of these choices.”

Source: Puttylike.com

I myself am a Multipotentialite. I stumbled upon this apropos term recently while on a quest for my own personal compass. Multipotentialites are also interchangeably referred to as:

• Polymath / Renaissance Person
• Scanner
• Slasher
• Generalist
• Multipassionate
• RP2
• Puttylike Personality, Puttypeep
• Multipod
• Plate Spinner

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sciolist
One who exhibits only superficial knowledge; a self-proclaimed expert with little real understanding.
2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason (Penguin), p. 290: Walter is [...] a dupe to the half-baked speculations of every sciolist from Descartes down to ‘Coglionissimo Borri’, and a pack of other dunces.
1893, James McNeill Whistler, "The Decadent Movement in Literature" (Harper's Magazine): But M. Dujardin is a poet; "vers libres" in the hands of a sciolist are the most intolerably easy and annoying of poetical exercises.

source:Wiktionary

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