intellectual

intellectual

adjective

Definition of INTELLECTUAL

1

much given to learning and thinking <as the daughter of college professors, she's used to being around intellectual people>

Synonyms blue, cerebral, eggheaded, geeky, highbrow, highbrowed, intellectualist, intellectualistic, long-haired (or longhair), nerdish, nerdy

Related Words cultivated, cultured; middlebrow; erudite, learned, literate, polyhistoric, polymath (or polymathic), scholarly, well-read; academic (also academical), bookish, professorial; didactic, high-toned, hyperintellectual, pedantic; high-hat, snobbish, snobby, snooty; educated, schooled; brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, intelligent, quick-witted, smart

Near Antonyms uncultivated, uncultured; ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, unlettered, unread; dumb, foolish, idiotic (also idiotical), moronic, slow, stupid, unintelligent; benighted, unenlightened

Antonyms anti-intellectual, lowbrow, nonintellectual, philistine

2

of or relating to the mind <intellectual pursuits such as reading and studying>

Synonyms cerebral, inner, intellectual, interior, internal, psychological (also psychologic)

Related Words cognitive, conscious, epistemic, knowing; noetic; psychic (also psychical), telepathic; alert, brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, intelligent, quick-witted, rational, reasoning, sharp, sharp-witted, smart, thinking

Near Antonyms bodily, carnal, corporal, corporeal, fleshly, physical, somatic; unconscious; brainless, dense, doltish, dopey (also dopy), fatuous, half-witted, mindless, obtuse, simple, slow-witted, stupid, thick, thickheaded, unintelligent, weak-minded, witless

Antonyms nonmental

3

of or relating to schooling or learning especially at an advanced level <research that shows that people from very intellectual backgrounds are happiest with spouses having comparable educations>

Synonyms educational, intellectual, scholarly, scholastic

Related Words bookish, donnish, geeky, nerdish, nerdy, pedagogical (also pedagogic), pedantic, professorial, tweedy; curricular; educative, instructive; collegiate, graduate, postgraduate

Near Antonyms cocurricular, extracurricular; noncollegiate

Antonyms nonacademic, noneducational, unacademic, unscholarly