genius
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Someone possessing extraordinary intelligence or skill.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
jeenyuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdʒinjəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
countable
Someone possessing extraordinary intelligence or skill; especially somebody who has demonstrated this by a creative or original work in science, music, art, etc.
uncountable
Inspiration, a mental leap, an extraordinary creative process.
uncountable
Extraordinary mental capacity.
adjective
informal
Ingenious, brilliant, very clever, or original.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Someone possessing extraordinary intelligence or skill; especially somebody who has demonstrated this by a creative or original work in science, music, art, etc.
Used this way, genius is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. This is a musical use: it is everyday language among musicians and listeners, and specialised outside that.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
- Science
Nearby words
- maven , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use genius
- “Mozart was a child genius.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The special atmosphere of a place.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: someone possessing extraordinary intelligence or skill
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.