Entry Word: genius

Function: noun

Meaning: 1 a very smart person <the 16-year-old college graduate was considered to be a genius>

Synonyms brain, intellect, thinker, whiz, wizard

Related Words egghead, highbrow, intellectual; master, virtuoso; ace, crackerjack, natural; sage, savant

Near Antonyms ignoramus, illiterate, know-nothing; ass, donkey, fool, jackass; beast, boor, cad, churl, clown, creep, cretin, cur, heel, jerk, louse, lout, skunk, snake, stinker

Antonyms blockhead, dodo, dolt, dope, dumbbell, dummy, dunce, fathead, goon, half-wit, idiot, imbecile, knothead, moron, nitwit, numskull (or numbskull), pinhead

2 a special and usually inborn ability <had a genius for remembering long strings of numbers> — see talent
3 a habitual attraction to some activity or thing <had a genius for saying the wrong thing no matter what the social situation> — see inclination 1
4 the set of qualities that makes a person, a group of people, or a thing different from others <putting the needs of the individual before those of society is alien to the genius of the Japanese people> — see nature 1