intelligent

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adjective

Definition of INTELLIGENT

1

having or showing quickness of mind <proud parents typically insist that their child is intelligent way beyond his or her years> <his intelligent response to the emergency averted a disaster>

Synonyms alert, brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, exceptional, fast, hyperintelligent, keen, nimble, quick, quick-witted, sharp, sharp-witted, smart, supersmart, ultrasmart

Related Words apt, ingenious, resourceful; acute, astute, discerning, heady, insightful, knowing, perceptive, percipient, perspicacious, sagacious, sapient, savvy, wise; cerebral, erudite, genial, highbrow, knowledgeable, learned, literate, scholarly, well-read; educated, informed, schooled, skilled, trained; creative, inventive, judicious, prudent, sage, sane, sapient, sensible, sound, wise; crafty, cunning, foxy, shrewd, wily; logical, rational, reasonable

Near Antonyms feebleminded, simpleminded; boobish, foolish, half-baked, idiotic (also idiotical), imbecile (or imbecilic), moronic, silly; ignorant, illiterate, lowbrow, nonintellectual, unacademic, uneducated, uninformed, unintellectual, untaught, unthinking; absurd, asinine, balmy, cockeyed, crackpot, crazy, cuckoo, daffy, daft, dippy, dotty, featherheaded, fool, half-baked, harebrained, insane, kooky (also kookie), loony (also looney), lunatic, mad, nonsensical, nutty, preposterous, sappy, screwball, tomfool, unwise, wacky (also whacky), zany

Antonyms airheaded, birdbrained, boneheaded, brain-dead, brainless, bubbleheaded, chuckleheaded, dense, dim, dim-witted, doltish, dopey (also dopy), dorky [slang], dull, dumb, dunderheaded, empty-headed, fatuous, gormless [chiefly British], half-witted, knuckleheaded, lamebrain (or lamebrained), lunkheaded, mindless, obtuse, opaque, pinheaded, senseless, simple, slow, slow-witted, soft, softheaded, stupid, thick, thickheaded, thick-witted, unbrilliant, unintelligent, unsmart, vacuous, weak-minded, witless

2

having the ability to reason <there is some debate over whether dolphins are intelligent animals>

Synonyms intelligent, reasonable, reasoning, thinking

Related Words analytic (or analytical), logical; brainy, cerebral, highbrow, highbrowed, intellectual; cognitional, cognitive, mental; levelheaded, practical, sane, sensible, sober

Near Antonyms brainless, dense, doltish, dopey (also dopy), dorky [slang], dull, dumb, fatuous, half-witted, mindless, obtuse, senseless, slow, stupid, thickheaded; fallacious, groundless, illogical, invalid, nonsensical

Antonyms irrational, nonrational, nonthinking, unintelligent, unreasonable, unreasoning, unthinking

3

having or showing good judgment and restraint especially in conduct or speech <the only intelligent response to such a tasteless joke is to quickly change the subject>

Synonyms intelligent, judgmatic (or judgmatical), judicious, prudent

Related Words cautious, chary, circumspect, cozy; forehanded, foresighted, foresightful, forethoughtful; discerning, discriminating, sage, sane, sapient, senseful, sensible, wise; canny, provident; astute, perspicacious, sagacious, shrewd

Near Antonyms careless, heedless, incautious, rash; improvident, shortsighted; foolish, unwise

Antonyms imprudent, indiscreet, injudicious