intellectual
Americanadjective
-
appealing to or engaging the intellect.
intellectual pursuits.
- Synonyms:
- mental
-
of or relating to the intellect or its use.
intellectual powers.
- Synonyms:
- mental
-
possessing or showing intellect or mental capacity, especially to a high degree.
an intellectual person.
-
guided or developed by or relying on the intellect rather than upon emotions or feelings; rational.
-
characterized by or suggesting a predominance of intellect.
an intellectual way of speaking.
noun
-
a person of superior intellect.
-
a person who places a high value on or pursues things of interest to the intellect or the more complex forms and fields of knowledge, as aesthetic or philosophical matters, especially on an abstract and general level.
-
an extremely rational person; a person who relies on intellect rather than on emotions or feelings.
-
a person professionally engaged in mental labor, as a writer or teacher.
-
Archaic. intellectuals,
-
the mental faculties.
-
things pertaining to the intellect.
-
adjective
-
of or relating to the intellect, as opposed to the emotions
-
appealing to or characteristic of people with a developed intellect
intellectual literature
-
expressing or enjoying mental activity
noun
-
a person who enjoys mental activity and has highly developed tastes in art, literature, etc
-
a person who uses or works with his intellect
-
a highly intelligent person
Related Words
See intelligent.
Other Word Forms
- half-intellectual adjective
- half-intellectually adverb
- hyperintellectual adjective
- hyperintellectually adverb
- hyperintellectualness noun
- intellectuality noun
- intellectually adverb
- intellectualness noun
- nonintellectual adjective
- nonintellectually adverb
- nonintellectualness noun
- overintellectual adjective
- overintellectually adverb
- overintellectualness noun
- preintellectual adjective
- preintellectually adverb
- quasi-intellectual adjective
- quasi-intellectually adverb
- semi-intellectual adjective
- semi-intellectually adverb
- superintellectual adjective
- superintellectually adverb
- unintellectual adjective
- unintellectually adverb
Etymology
Origin of intellectual
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin intellēctuālis, equivalent to intellēctu-, stem of intellēctus intellect + -ālis -al 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“People think pottery is a higher form of intellectual achievement, but the thing is, baskets are better than pottery,” Timbrook said.
From Los Angeles Times
She was kind of the gateway to exceptional comedy — physical comedy, intellectual comedy, and a wonderful absurdity but also quite often, in surprising ways, rather heartbreaking.
From Los Angeles Times
That said, economists and central bankers have an ongoing intellectual debate to decipher whether AI is indeed the reason for the rise in productivity.
From MarketWatch
"Impostorism is a feeling like being an intellectual fraud even when there is strong evidence of success," Shin explained.
From Science Daily
The red, white and blue banner graced courthouses where Jewish intellectuals who fled Nazism swore allegiance to the United States.
From Salon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
