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

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

1. intellectual, intellectadjective

   a person who uses the mind creatively

2. intellectual, rational, noeticadjective

   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. intellectualadjective

   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, intellectualadjective

   involving intelligence rather than emotions or instinct

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

GCIDE(4.19 / 11 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Intellectualnoun

   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. intellectualnoun

   An intelligent person, someone interested in intellectual matters.

2. intellectualnoun

   The intellect or understanding; mental powers or faculties.

3. intellectualadjective

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

4. intellectualadjective

   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. intellectualadjective

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

6. intellectualadjective

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

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Intellectualadjective

   Etymology: intellectuel, French; intellectualis, low Latin.

   1. Relating to the understanding; belonging to the mind; transacted by the understanding.

   Religion teaches us to present to God our bodies as well as our souls: if the body serves the soul in actions natural and civil, and intellectual, it must not be eased in the only offices of religion. Taylor.

   2. Mental; comprising the faculty of understanding; belonging to the mind.

   Logick is to teach us the right use of our reason, or intellectual powers. Isaac Watts.

   3. Ideal; perceived by the intellect, not the senses.

   In a dark vision's intellectual scene,
   Beneath a bow'r for sorrow made,
   The melancholy Cowley lay. Abraham Cowley.

   A train of phantoms in wild order rose,
   And, join'd, this intellectual scene compose. Alexander Pope.

   4. Having the power of understanding.

   Anaxagoras and Plato term the maker of the world an intellectual worker. Richard Hooker.

   Who would lose,
   Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
   Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
   To perish rather, swallow'd up and lost,
   In the wide womb of uncreated night,
   Devoid of sense and motion? John Milton, Parad. Lost.

   5. Proposed as the object not of the senses but intellect: as, Cudworth names his book the intellectual system of the universe.

2. Intellectualnoun

   Intellect; understanding; mental powers or faculties. This is little in use.

   Her husband not nigh,
   Whose higher intellectual more I shun. John Milton.

   The fancies of most, like the index of a clock, are moved but by the inward springs of the corporeal machine; which, even on the most sublimed intellectual, is dangerously influential. Joseph Glanvill, Sceps.

   I have not consulted the repute of my intellectuals in bringing their weaknesses into such discerning presences. Joseph Glanvill.

Wikipedia(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Intellectual

   An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or as a mediator, the intellectual participates in politics, either to defend a concrete proposition or to denounce an injustice, usually by either rejecting or producing or extending an ideology, and by defending a system of values.

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

1. Intellectualadjective

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

2. Intellectualadjective

   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

3. Intellectualadjective

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

4. Intellectualadjective

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

5. Intellectualnoun

   the intellect or understanding; mental powers or faculties

6. 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. ---

   intellectualadjective

   a person who uses the mind creatively

   intelectual

   Etymology: intelligent

   
   

   Submitted by undiphilekeith65 on November 13, 2022  

3. ---

   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

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

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. Kevin Brady:

   While we want China to buy more U.S. goods ... it's even more important for us to hold China accountable to meeting high international standards on intellectual property rights, subsidization, overcapacity, and the other structural ways in which China distorts the global economy.

2. Wang Wenbin:

   China has always attached great importance to [ intellectual property ] protection and its achievements in recent years are there for all to see, the rapid growth of foreign patents in China shows that foreign enterprises have firm confidence in China's patent protection and business environment.

3. Anne Morrow Lindbergh:

   The intellectual is constantly betrayed by his vanity. Godlike he blandly assumes that he can express everything in words whereas the things one loves, lives, and dies for are not, in the last analysis completely expressible in words.

4. Ludwig van Beethoven:

   Music, verily, is the mediator between intellectual and sensuous life... the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

5. Deputy CEO:

   We are very open to transfer technology, to sharing intellectual property rights with India.

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