Definitions for intellectual
ˌɪn tlˈɛk tʃu əlin·tel·lec·tu·al

Princeton's WordNet(2.75 / 8 votes)Rate this definition:

1. intellectual, intellect(adj)

   a person who uses the mind creatively

2. intellectual, rational, noetic(adj)

   of or associated with or requiring the use of the mind

   "intellectual problems"; "the triumph of the rational over the animal side of man"

3. intellectual(adj)

   appealing to or using the intellect

   "satire is an intellectual weapon"; "intellectual workers engaged in creative literary or artistic or scientific labor"; "has tremendous intellectual sympathy for oppressed people"; "coldly intellectual"; "sort of the intellectual type"; "intellectual literature"

4. cerebral, intellectual(adj)

   involving intelligence rather than emotions or instinct

   "a cerebral approach to the problem"; "cerebral drama"

GCIDE(4.19 / 11 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Intellectual(n.)

   A learned person or one of high intelligence; especially, one who places greatest value on activities requiring exercise of the intelligence, such as study, complex forms of knowledge, literature and aesthetic matters, reflection and philosophical speculation; a member of the intelligentsia; as, intellectuals are often apalled at the inanities that pass for entertainment on television.

Wiktionary(2.50 / 4 votes)Rate this definition:

1. intellectual(Noun)

   An intelligent person, someone interested in intellectual matters.

2. intellectual(Noun)

   The intellect or understanding; mental powers or faculties.

3. intellectual(Adjective)

   Belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental; as, intellectual powers, activities, etc.

4. intellectual(Adjective)

   Endowed with intellect; having the power of understanding; having capacity for the higher forms of knowledge or thought; characterized by intelligence or mental capacity; as, an intellectual person.

5. intellectual(Adjective)

   Suitable for exercising the intellect; formed by, and existing for, the intellect alone; perceived by the intellect; as, intellectual employments.

6. intellectual(Adjective)

   Relating to the understanding; treating of the mind; as, intellectual philosophy, sometimes called "mental" philosophy.

Webster Dictionary(2.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Intellectual(adj)

   belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental; as, intellectual powers, activities, etc

   Etymology: [L. intellectualis: cf. F. intellectuel.]

2. Intellectual(adj)

   endowed with intellect; having the power of understanding; having capacity for the higher forms of knowledge or thought; characterized by intelligence or mental capacity; as, an intellectual person

   Etymology: [L. intellectualis: cf. F. intellectuel.]

3. Intellectual(adj)

   suitable for exercising the intellect; formed by, and existing for, the intellect alone; perceived by the intellect; as, intellectual employments

   Etymology: [L. intellectualis: cf. F. intellectuel.]

4. Intellectual(adj)

   relating to the understanding; treating of the mind; as, intellectual philosophy, sometimes called "mental" philosophy

   Etymology: [L. intellectualis: cf. F. intellectuel.]

5. Intellectual(noun)

   the intellect or understanding; mental powers or faculties

   Etymology: [L. intellectualis: cf. F. intellectuel.]

Freebase(3.00 / 3 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Intellectual

   An intellectual is a person who primarily uses intelligence in either a professional or an individual capacity. As a substantive or adjective, it refers to the work product of such persons, to the so-called "life of the mind" generally, or to an aspect of something where learning, erudition, and informed and critical thinking are the focus, as in "the intellectual level of the discourse on the matter was not high". The intellectual is a specific variety of the intelligent, which unlike the general property, is strictly associated with reason and thinking. Many everyday roles require the application of intelligence to skills that may have a psychomotor component, for example, in the fields of medicine, sport or the arts, but these do not necessarily involve the practitioner in the "world of ideas". The distinctive quality of the intellectual person is that the mental skills, which he or she demonstrates, are not simply intelligent, but even more, they focus on thinking about the abstract, philosophical and esoteric aspects of human inquiry and the value of their thinking. Traditionally, the scholarly and the intellectual classes were closely identified; however, while intellectuals need not necessarily be actively involved in scholarship, they often have an academic background and will typically have an association with a profession.

Editors Contribution(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. intellectual

   A person who is smart and enjoys serious study and thought.

   That person is a real intellectual.

   Submitted by JP03 on February 5, 2015  

2. intellectual

   To use the mind and intelligence to create.

   The computer programmers are intellectual human beings.

   Submitted by MaryC on April 3, 2020  

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'intellectual' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #3726

2. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'intellectual' in Nouns Frequency: #2738

3. Adjectives Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'intellectual' in Adjectives Frequency: #500

How to pronounce intellectual?

1. 

   Alex

   US English

   

   Daniel

   British

   

   Karen

   Australian

   

   Veena

   Indian

How to say intellectual in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of intellectual in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of intellectual in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of intellectual in a Sentence

1. Benoit Mandelbrot:

   Science would be ruined if (like sports) it were to put competition above everything else, and if it were to clarify the rules of competition by withdrawing entirely into narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are nomads-by-choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the settled disciplines.

2. Eugenio Montale:

   The most dangerous aspect of present-day life is the dissolution of the feeling of individual responsibility. Mass solitude has done away with any difference between the internal and the external, between the intellectual and the physical.

3. Anuj Somany:

   A person who is truly intellectual gets emotional for only living things not materials like gadgets or machinery like cars etc because being sentimental means having human feelings for real not artificial

4. Thomas Hobbes:

   All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called "Facts". They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.

5. James Scott, Senior Fellow, Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology:

   Cyber hygiene has to be memetically pounded into the intellectual DNA of the American population and continuously reinforced by peer pressure.

Images & Illustrations of intellectual

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