INTELLECTUAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does intellectual mean? 

• INTELLECTUAL (noun)
  The noun INTELLECTUAL has 1 sense:

1. a person who uses the mind creatively

  Familiarity information: INTELLECTUAL used as a noun is very rare.

• INTELLECTUAL (adjective)
  The adjective INTELLECTUAL has 3 senses:

1. of or associated with or requiring the use of the mind

2. appealing to or using the intellect

3. involving intelligence rather than emotions or instinct

  Familiarity information: INTELLECTUAL used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INTELLECTUAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who uses the mind creatively

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

intellect; intellectual

Hypernyms ("intellectual" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "intellectual"):

mentor; wise man (a wise and trusted guide and advisor)

wonderer (someone who is curious about something)

illusionist; seer; visionary (a person with unusual powers of foresight)

thinker (someone who exercises the mind (usually in an effort to reach a decision))

creative thinker; mind; thinker (an important intellectual)

idealogue; theoretician; theoriser; theorist; theorizer (someone who theorizes (especially in science or art))

synthesiser; synthesist; synthesizer (an intellectual who synthesizes or uses synthetic methods)

subjectivist (a person who subscribes to subjectivism)

specifier (someone who draws up specifications giving details (as for obtaining a patent))

doubter; sceptic; skeptic (someone who habitually doubts accepted beliefs)

bookman; scholar; scholarly person; student (a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines)

anomalist (someone who has a special interest in exceptional cases)

highbrow (a person of intellectual or erudite tastes)

brain; brainiac; Einstein; genius; mastermind (someone who has exceptional intellectual ability and originality)

expositor; expounder (a person who explains)

egghead (an intellectual; a very studious and academic person)

decipherer; decoder (the kind of intellectual who converts messages from a code to plain text)

clever clogs; clever Dick (an intellectual who is ostentatiously and irritatingly knowledgeable)

bel esprit (a witty or clever person with a fine mind)

aphorist (someone who formulates aphorisms or who repeats aphorisms)

alchemist (one who was versed in the practice of alchemy and who sought an elixir of life and a panacea and an alkahest and the philosopher's stone)

exponent (someone who expounds and interprets or explains)

• INTELLECTUAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or associated with or requiring the use of the mind

Synonyms:

intellectual; noetic; rational

Context example:

the triumph of the rational over the animal side of man

Similar:

mental (involving the mind or an intellectual process)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Appealing to or using the intellect

Context example:

intellectual literature

Similar:

highbrow; highbrowed (highly cultured or educated)

rational (having its source in or being guided by the intellect (as distinguished from experience or emotion))

reflective (devoted to matters of the mind)

good; serious (appealing to the mind)

sophisticated (intellectually appealing)

Also:

educated (possessing an education (especially having more than average knowledge))

mental (involving the mind or an intellectual process)

scholarly (characteristic of scholars or scholarship)

Attribute:

intellect; mind (knowledge and intellectual ability)

Antonym:

nonintellectual (not intellectual)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Involving intelligence rather than emotions or instinct

Synonyms:

cerebral; intellectual

Context example:

cerebral drama

Derivation:

intellect (knowledge and intellectual ability)

 Context examples 

The intellectual decline is usually progressive, and initially spares the level of consciousness.

(Dementia, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

You know my powers, my dear Watson, and yet at the end of three months I was forced to confess that I had at last met an antagonist who was my intellectual equal.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Loss of intellectual functions such as memory, learning, reasoning, problem solving, and abstract thinking while vegetative functions remain intact.

(Dementia, NIH CRISP Thesaurus)

The envy is an intellectual product.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Manifestations include musculoskeletal abnormalities, intellectual disability, spina bifida, and distinctive facial features.

(Fetal Valproate Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

It may be associated with intellectual disability.

(Farber Lipogranulomatosis, NCI Thesaurus)

Loss of intellectual abilities interfering with an individual's social and occupational functions.

(Dementia, NCI Thesaurus)

At least, he is the finest specimen of intellectual man I have met; but he is a man with a secret shame.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

You are an intellectual sign, so you like to have facts to pin to your decisions, but in the coming year, your instinct will be sharp, and you will need to trust it.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Severe iodine deficiency has long been known to cause intellectual and developmental delays in infants.

(Iodine deficiency may reduce pregnancy chances, National Institutes of Health)