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intellectual

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Endowed with intellect; having a keen sense of understanding.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihntuhlehkchoouhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪntəˈlɛktʃuəl

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Appealing to or using the intellect

  2. Endowed with intellect; having a keen sense of understanding; having the capacity for higher forms of knowledge or thought; characterized by intelligence or cleverness

  3. Pertaining to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive.

  4. Suitable for exercising one's intellect; perceived by the intellect

  5. Relating to the understanding; treating of the mind.

noun

  1. A person who uses the mind creatively

  2. An intelligent, learned person, especially one who discourses about learned matters.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Endowed with intellect; having a keen sense of understanding; having the capacity for higher forms of knowledge or thought; characterized by intelligence or cleverness

Used this way, intellectual is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It carries warmth, so it reads as personal rather than detached.

Emotional tone
Positive
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Gentle
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Keen and enthusiastic
Usage feel
Warm and expressive

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use intellectual

  • “She is an intellectual who loves discussing philosophy and complex ideas.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Endowed / intellect

intellectual freedom

Pertaining

intellectual ability

Other combinations

intellectual propertyintellectual capitalintellectual lifeintellectual developmentintellectual historyintellectual activity

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • intellectual nourishmentnounCompound term

    Anything that provides mental stimulus for thinking.

  • intellectual propertynounCompound term

    Intangible property that is the result of creativity (such as patents or trademarks or copyrights).

  • anti-intellectualnounCompound term

    A person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: appealing to or using the intellect

sophisticated

Antonyms

adjective

Sense: appealing to or using the intellect

nonintellectualRare

noun

Sense: person who uses the mind creatively

nonintellectualRare

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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.