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As Superman fans know, Brainiac was the superintelligent villain in the Action Comics series and its spin-offs. His name is a portmanteau of brain and maniac. You don't need x-ray vision to see the connection here—etymologists think Superman's brainy adversary is the likely inspiration for the common noun brainiac. The term was not coined right away though. The comic-book series was launched in 1938 and the character Brainiac debuted in 1958, but current evidence doesn't show general use of brainiac to refer to a superintelligent person until the 1970s.
Examples of brainiac in a Sentence
Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 28 Mar. 2025
Because bonobos are brainiacs, pinpointing the cup with the treat should have been no sweat.
—Jack Tamisiea, Scientific American, 3 Feb. 2025
Coin Heist, adapted from Elisa Ludwig’s YA novel, follows in the footsteps of The Breakfast Club by uniting high schoolers who otherwise wouldn’t give each other the time of day: a hacker, the headmaster’s slacker son, a football phenom on a scholarship, and an uptight brainiac.
—Sara Netzley, EW.com, 8 Jan. 2025
Hollis enrolled him at Terra Environmental Research Institute, a magnet school for science, tech and engineering brainiacs.
—Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald, 2 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Brainiac.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brainiac. Accessed 23 May. 2025.
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