THINKER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does thinker mean? 

• THINKER (noun)
  The noun THINKER has 2 senses:

1. an important intellectual

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

  Familiarity information: THINKER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THINKER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An important intellectual

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

creative thinker; mind; thinker

Context example:

the great minds of the 17th century

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

intellect; intellectual (a person who uses the mind creatively)

Derivation:

think (use or exercise the mind or one's power of reason in order to make inferences, decisions, or arrive at a solution or judgments)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

intellect; intellectual (a person who uses the mind creatively)

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

brain-worker; brainworker (someone whose profession involves using his head to solve problems)

classifier (a person who creates classifications)

divergent thinker (a thinker who moves away from the problem as stated and often has novel ideas and solutions)

excogitator (a thinker who considers carefully and thoroughly)

muller; muser; ponderer; ruminator (a reflective thinker characterized by quiet contemplation)

arranger; organiser; organizer (a person who brings order and organization to an enterprise)

philosophiser; philosophizer (someone who considers situations from a philosophical point of view)

convergent thinker; problem solver; solver (a thinker who focuses on the problem as stated and tries to synthesize information and knowledge to achieve a solution)

ratiocinator; reasoner (someone who reasons logically)

rocket scientist (a clever thinker)

speculator (someone who makes conjectures without knowing the facts)

Derivation:

think (use or exercise the mind or one's power of reason in order to make inferences, decisions, or arrive at a solution or judgments)

 Context examples 

He knew that the great minds, the deep and rational thinkers, existed.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It reminded me of Taine, yet I knew the man had never heard of that brilliant though dangerous thinker.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker.

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

Now I am aware that he is not only one of the heads of the medical school of the university, but a thinker of European reputation in more than one branch of science.

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

Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of Baker Street would have failed to recognise him.

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

That brow was the brow of the public Charles Fox, the thinker, the philanthropist, the man who rallied and led the Liberal party during the twenty most hazardous years of its existence.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The late George Gaylord Simpson, a geoscientist at UA and an influential evolutionary thinker of the last century, proposed that these fluctuating dependencies should determine the speed of evolution.

(Colorful bird feathers offer evolutionary clues, National Science Foundation)

Your wide range of creativity and your ability to keep complex projects on budget is a rare skill, not often found in an applicant who is such a creative thinker, but this is exactly what VIPs find so attractive about you, in addition to your vision and sound judgement.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

All thinkers on general subjects, the greatest minds in the world, in fact, rely on the specialists.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A moment later he was the cold and practical thinker once more.

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