intellectual

intellectual

See also: intel·lectual

English

Alternative forms

• intellectuall (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French intellectuel, from Latin intellectualis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/, /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃwəl/, /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʃəl/

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Adjective

intellectual (comparative more intellectual, superlative most intellectual)

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

   intellectual powers, activities, etc.

   • 1920, Harold Monro, Preface to s:The year's at the spring; an anthology of recent poetry

     Pleasure is various, but it cannot exist where the emotions or the imagination have not been powerfully stirred. Whether it be called sensual or intellectual, pleasure cannot be willed

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

   an intellectual person

   • 1894, Edgar Wilson Nye, Nye's History of the USA Chapter 30

     The Fenimore Cooper Indian is no doubt a brave and highly intellectual person, educated abroad, refined and cultivated by foreign travel, graceful in the grub dance or scalp walk-around, yet tender-hearted as a girl, walking by night fifty-seven miles in a single evening to warn his white friends of danger.

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

   intellectual employments

   • 1916, Joseph McCabe, The Tyranny of Shams Chapter IX

     A good deal of nonsense is written about sport and entertainment. Many of us can, with pleasant ease, suspend a severely intellectual task for a few hours to witness a first-class football match.

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

   intellectual philosophy, sometimes called "mental" philosophy

5. (archaic, poetic) Spiritual.
   • 1805, William Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book II, lines 331-334 (eds. Jonathan Wordsworth, M. H. Abrams, & Stephen Gill, published by W. W. Norton & Company, 1979):

     I deem not profitless those fleeting moods / Of shadowy exultation; not for this, / That they are kindred to our purer mind / And intellectual life […]

Antonyms

• nonintellectual

Derived terms

Terms derived from intellectual (adjective)

• anti-intellectual
• intellectual capital
• intellectual disability
• intellectual honesty
• intellectuality
• intellectual journey
• intellectual property
• intellectual rights
• intellectually
• organic intellectual
• pseudo-intellectual

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to intellectual

• intellect
• intellectualize
• intelligence
• intelligent
• overintellectualize

Translations

belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive

Azerbaijani: zehni Bulgarian: умствен (bg) (umstven), мисловен (bg) (misloven) Catalan: intel·lectual (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 智力的 (zhìlì de) Czech: intelektuální (cs) Dutch: verstandelijk (nl) Finnish: älyllinen (fi), henkinen (fi) French: intellectuel (fr) Galician: intelectual (gl) German: intellektuell (de) Greek: Ancient: νοητικός (noētikós) Italian: intellettuale Japanese: 知的な (ちてきな, chiteki na) Kazakh: зияткерлік (ziätkerlık) Khmer: បញ្ញា (km) (paɲɲaa) Norwegian: Bokmål: intellektuell Nynorsk: intellektuell Polish: intelektualny (pl) Portuguese: intelectual (pt) Romanian: intelectual (ro) Russian: интеллектуа́льный (ru) (intellektuálʹnyj), у́мственный (ru) (úmstvennyj) Spanish: intelectual (es) Swedish: intellektuell (sv) Tagalog: pang-isipan, makaisipnon Turkish: entellektüel (tr), aklî Welsh: deallusol, dealltwriaethol

endowed with intellect

Bulgarian: интелектуален (intelektualen) Finnish: älyllinen (fi), älykäs (fi), intellektuaalinen (fi) Italian: intellettuale Maori: ihumanea, uhumanea Norwegian: Bokmål: intellektuell Nynorsk: intellektuell Portuguese: intelectual (pt) Tagalog: pang-isipan, makaisipnon Turkish: zeki (tr), akıllı (tr)

suitable for exercising the intellect

Bulgarian: интелектуален (intelektualen) Finnish: älyllinen (fi), henkinen (fi); älyperäinen

relating to the understanding

Finnish: älyllinen (fi), henkinen (fi); mielen, mieli- (fi)

spiritual — see spiritual

Noun

intellectual (plural intellectuals)

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

   Synonym: highbrow

   Coordinate terms: egghead, nerd, geek

   • 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn:

     It should be noted that there is now no intelligentsia that is not in some sense "Left". Perhaps the last right-wing intellectual was T. E. Lawrence. Since about 1930 everyone describable as an “intellectual” has lived in a state of chronic discontent with the existing order.

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, London: Heinemann, OCLC 59891543, pages 20–21:

     ‘You know I hate intellectuals.’
     ‘You mean you hate people who are cleverer than you are.’
     ‘Yes. I suppose that's why I like you so much, Tom.’

2. (archaic) The intellect or understanding; mental powers or faculties.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, chapter 1, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], OCLC 1008551266, 1st book, page 2:

     […] although their intellectuals had not failed in the theory of truth, yet did the inservient and brutall faculties control the suggestion of reason […]

Derived terms

• public intellectual

Translations

intelligent person, interested in intellectual matters

Azerbaijani: ziyalı (az) Belarusian: інтэліге́нт m (intelihjént), інтэліге́нтка f (intelihjéntka), інтэлектуа́л m (inteljektuál), інтэлектуа́лка f (inteljektuálka) Bulgarian: интелектуалец m (intelektualec) Catalan: intel·lectual (ca) m or f Chinese: Mandarin: 知識分子／知识分子 (zh) (zhīshi fènzǐ) Czech: intelektuál m Finnish: intellektuelli (fi), älykkö (fi) French: intellectuel (fr), intello (fr) m or f (informal) Galician: intelectual (gl) m or f German: Intellektueller (de) m, Intellektuelle (de) f Japanese: 知識人 (ja) (ちしきじん, chishikijin) Kazakh: зиялы (kk) (ziäly) Korean: 지식인 (ko) (jisigin) Kyrgyz: зыялы (zıyalı), окумал (okumal) Maori: iho pūmanawa, ihumanea, uhumanea Persian: روشن‌فکری‎ Polish: inteligent (pl) m, inteligentka f, intelektualista (pl) m, intelektualistka (pl) f Portuguese: intelectual (pt) m or f Romanian: intelectual (ro) m, intelectuală (ro) f Russian: интеллиге́нт (ru) m (intelligént), интеллиге́нтка (ru) f (intelligéntka), интеллектуа́л (ru) m (intellektuál), интеллектуа́лка (ru) f (intellektuálka) Swedish: intellektuell (sv) c Tagalog: isipnon Turkish: aydın (tr) Ukrainian: інтеліге́нт m (intelihént), інтеліге́нтка f (intelihéntka), інтелектуа́л m (intelektuál), інтелектуа́лка f (intelektuálka) Uyghur: زىيالىي‎ (ziyaliy)

See also

• intelligentsia

References

• intellectual in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• "intellectual" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 169.