intellectual
adjective
, -chəl, -shwəl, -chü(-ə)l\
Definition of intellectual
(Entry 1 of 2)
intellectual
nounDefinition of intellectual (Entry 2 of 2)
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Other Words from intellectual
Adjective
\
noun
, -chə-lē , -shwə-lē , -chü(-ə)-lē \
adverb
, -chəl- , -shwəl- , -chü(-ə)l- \
noun
Synonyms & Antonyms for intellectual
Synonyms: Adjective
blue, cerebral, eggheaded, geeky, highbrow, highbrowed, intellectualist, intellectualistic, long-haired (or longhair), nerdish, nerdy
Synonyms: Noun
double-dome, egghead, geek, highbrow, intellectualist, longhair, nerd
Antonyms: Adjective
anti-intellectual, lowbrow, nonintellectual, philistine
Antonyms: Noun
anti-intellectual, lowbrow, philistine
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Examples of intellectual in a Sentence
Adjective
the social and intellectual life of the campus as the daughter of college professors, she's used to being around intellectual peopleNoun
He thinks that he's an intellectual, but he doesn't know what he's talking about. She's a hard worker but she's no great intellectual. a café where artists and intellectuals mingle
Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective
These include pneumonia, hearing loss, tracheal infections, and a very rare brain disease called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, which causes intellectual deterioration seven to 10 years after measles exposure. — Amanda Macmillan, Health.com, "So There's a Measles Outbreak Near You. How Worried Should You Be?," 5 Sep. 2019 Europeans are at the end of their tether with President Trump and U.S. threats to impose tariffs on imports from the E.U. Industrial policy, furthermore, seems to be regaining its intellectual legitimacy on the political left and right. — Scott Cullinane, National Review, "American–European Unity against China Is Indispensable," 5 Sep. 2019 Making intellectual advances was the most important thing. — The Economist, "Martin Weitzman died on August 27th," 4 Sep. 2019 Chip Kelly was operating on a different strategic and intellectual level than anybody else on the college level during his four seasons in Eugene. — oregonlive, "On mastering the fine art of being a successful, in-game college football coach: Issues & Answers," 3 Sep. 2019 Ultimately, frustration and fatigue prevail over the film’s intellectual acuity and political insight; neither is any true emotion ever forthcoming. — Todd Mccarthy, The Hollywood Reporter, "'Motherless Brooklyn': Film Review | Telluride 2019," 31 Aug. 2019 The enduring appeal of the boarding school novel is a testament to readers’ collective obsession with a place where you are encouraged to spend all your time thinking about your own identity and intellectual growth. — Seija Rankin, EW.com, "How Elizabeth Ames wrote The Other's Gold, your new favorite campus novel," 27 Aug. 2019 Rosen, like Luck, has interests outside of football, comes from an affluent background and sure seems to have the intellectual horsepower to succeed in other fields. — Albert Breer, SI.com, "How the Colts Are Pushing Forward Without Andrew Luck," 26 Aug. 2019 Game companies submit virtual guns to intellectual-property lawyers, either internally or at outside firms. — Sidney Fussell, The Atlantic, "Why It’s So Hard to Stop Marketing Guns in Video Games," 19 Aug. 2019Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
For decades, Uighur intellectuals maneuvered carefully, working to advance their culture while avoiding being tarred as separatists or extremists. — Washington Post, "China ban on some textbooks seen as aimed at Uighur culture," 28 Aug. 2019 Over the next four years, many filmmakers, writers, painters and intellectuals were killed or went into exile. — Los Angeles Times, "Young filmmakers train a fresh lens on turbulent Cambodia," 27 Aug. 2019 Just because Epstein dined alongside intellectuals doesn’t, on its own, taint their work. — Adam Rogers, WIRED, "Jeffrey Epstein and the Power of Networks," 27 Aug. 2019 Four-term New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Harvard intellectual who never lost his faculty club manner, shimmers as a rare exception. — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, "Arguing the World," 15 Aug. 2019 On June 1, 1962, black writers and other intellectuals from all over the world converged on Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda for the Conference of African Writers of English Expression. — James Murua, Quartz Africa, "The rise and rise of the literary festival in African cities," 9 Aug. 2019 Her grandfather, Andres Molina Enriquez, was a key intellectual in the Mexican Revolution, writing the first draft of the new constitution’s land reforms. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "Educator, social activist Gracia Molina de Pick dies at 91," 20 Aug. 2019 Rationalist intellectuals who campaigned against orthodoxy, such as M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, have been shot dead and their murders linked to certain ultra-Hindu outfits. — K.n.c., The Economist, "India cannot flourish without individual freedom," 16 Aug. 2019 The controversy over the CFA Franc gets revived on a regular basis by African politicians and intellectuals. — Cheikh Ahmed Bamba Diagne, Quartz Africa, "How Francophone Africa’s France-backed CFA franc works and why it’s controversial," 2 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'intellectual.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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