Didactic means designed to teach or instruct, especially in a way that's very direct and obvious about the lesson. A didactic story is one where the author clearly wants you to learn something specific, like “The Tortoise and the Hare” teaching that slow and steady wins the race.

The word often carries a slightly negative feeling, suggesting that something is too preachy or heavy-handed with its message. If someone says a book is didactic, they might mean it feels more like a lecture than an entertaining story. A teacher who is overly didactic might explain every little detail rather than letting students discover things for themselves.

However, didactic isn't always bad. Some of the best teaching is intentionally didactic, clearly showing students how to do something step by step. Math textbooks are didactic by design, walking you through problems systematically. The key difference is whether the teaching feels natural and helpful or forced and preachy. When a story naturally shows you something about life while keeping you entertained, it doesn't feel didactic. But when an author stops the action to make sure you understand the moral, that's when something becomes didactic.