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. Jeff Beckman:

   It is important for Hershey to protect its trademark rights and to prevent consumers from being confused or misled when they see a product name or product package that is confusingly similar to a Hershey name or trade dress, hershey has always vigorously protected its brands and will continue to do so whenever we believe that others have infringed on these valuable intellectual assets.

2. John Demers:

   China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cyber criminals in exchange for those criminals being on call to work for the benefit of the state, here to feed the Chinese Communist Partys insatiable hunger for American and other non-Chinese companies hard-earned intellectual property, including COVID-19 research.

3. Chinua Achebe:

   To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing about intellectual issues it means taking pleasure in them.

4. John Maynard Keynes:

   The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.

5. Thomas Wolfe:

   Le Corbusier was the sort of relentlessly rational intellectual that only France loves wholeheartedly, the logician who flies higher and higher in ever-decreasing circles until, with one last, utterly inevitable induction, he disappears up his own fundamental aperture and emerges in the fourth dimension as a needle-thin umber bird.

Images & Illustrations of intellectual

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