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pseudointellectual
[ soo-doh-in-tl-ek-choo-uhl ]
/ ˌsu doʊˌɪn tlˈɛk tʃu əl /
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noun
a person exhibiting intellectual pretensions that have no basis in sound scholarship.
a person who pretends an interest in intellectual matters for reasons of status.
adjective
of, relating to, or characterized by fraudulent intellectuality; unscholarly: a pseudointellectual book.
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Origin of pseudointellectual
First recorded in 1935–40; pseudo- + intellectual
OTHER WORDS FROM pseudointellectual
pseu·do·in·tel·lec·tu·al·ly, adverbWords nearby pseudointellectual
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
How to use pseudointellectual in a sentence
As soon as I heard this long, desperate stream of pseudointellectual gibberish, I knew instantly that this thing was doomed.