as in nonintellectual
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Recent Examples of anti-intellectual
Peter Nguyen, The Conversation, 30 Apr. 2025
But the Library’s decline had begun much earlier, starting with anti-intellectual purges by Ptolemy VIII that predated even the first fire.
—Hannah Edgar, ARTnews.com, 27 Feb. 2025
In short, the Trump administration’s populist and anti-intellectual worldview does not map cleanly onto the liberal-conservative ideological divide in the U.S.
—Dominik Stecuła, The Conversation, 29 Jan. 2025
Lisa develops a crush on him, fueled mainly by her realization that Bergstrom’s sensitivity and love of learning fill needs that her often brutish and anti-intellectual dad isn’t equipped to handle.
—Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 17 Dec. 2024
Americans who hold anti-intellectual views were more resistant to vaccinating against COVID in the early days of the pandemic; more likely to believe that climate change is not human-caused; and more likely to express misperceptions about macroeconomic performance.
—Matt Motta, Scientific American, 29 Oct. 2024
Surprisingly, his American educational background did not cost him politically during Mao Zedong’s many anti-American and anti-intellectual campaigns.
—David Shambaugh, Foreign Affairs, 30 Nov. 2022
As the Cultural Revolution tears through China, young scientist Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng) watches a mob beat her father to death in an anti-intellectual frenzy.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 9 Mar. 2024
On and on the anti-intellectual drivel goes, parroted by scores more of MAGA Media personalities who spend their days peddling junk to their audiences.
—Oliver Darcy, CNN, 30 Jan. 2024
Adjective
This approach serves as a powerful contrast to any hollow, anti-intellectual and culturally bankrupt tyranny.
—Peter Nguyen, The Conversation, 30 Apr. 2025
But the Library’s decline had begun much earlier, starting with anti-intellectual purges by Ptolemy VIII that predated even the first fire.
—Hannah Edgar, ARTnews.com, 27 Feb. 2025
In short, the Trump administration’s populist and anti-intellectual worldview does not map cleanly onto the liberal-conservative ideological divide in the U.S.
—Dominik Stecuła, The Conversation, 29 Jan. 2025
Lisa develops a crush on him, fueled mainly by her realization that Bergstrom’s sensitivity and love of learning fill needs that her often brutish and anti-intellectual dad isn’t equipped to handle.
—Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 17 Dec. 2024
Americans who hold anti-intellectual views were more resistant to vaccinating against COVID in the early days of the pandemic; more likely to believe that climate change is not human-caused; and more likely to express misperceptions about macroeconomic performance.
—Matt Motta, Scientific American, 29 Oct. 2024
Surprisingly, his American educational background did not cost him politically during Mao Zedong’s many anti-American and anti-intellectual campaigns.
—David Shambaugh, Foreign Affairs, 30 Nov. 2022
As the Cultural Revolution tears through China, young scientist Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng) watches a mob beat her father to death in an anti-intellectual frenzy.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 9 Mar. 2024
On and on the anti-intellectual drivel goes, parroted by scores more of MAGA Media personalities who spend their days peddling junk to their audiences.
—Oliver Darcy, CNN, 30 Jan. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for anti-intellectual
Adjective
-
In Cherkashin, Nash Sovremennik presented a model genealogy as well as a model Pushkin scholar: a righteous, passionate, nonintellectual man of the people.—
Kathleen Parthé,
The New York Review of Books,
18 Aug. 2022
-
Such thumbnail indictments of the nonintellectual masses seemed to stem from Hofstadter’s own mounting sense of political and cultural homelessness in the postwar world.—
Chris Lehmann,
The New Republic,
16 Apr. 2020
Adjective
-
The Catholic Church openly collaborated with the Ustaše, whose support came largely from young men with rural, blue-collar, uneducated backgrounds.—
Larry Luxner,
Sun Sentinel,
5 May 2025
-
Look, the game is about first impressions and making decisions that are sort of uneducated.—
Michael Cuby,
Them.,
31 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Trump has no knowledge of military history and has surrounded himself with advisers equally ignorant.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
16 May 2025
-
Anger materializes in people who are toxic and ignorant.—
Ernesto Lechner,
Rolling Stone,
10 May 2025
Adjective
-
While no single moment led to Housewives breaking away from lowbrow connotations to widespread acclaim, everyone can agree that RHOA played a crucial part in the evolution.—
Ile-Ife Okantah,
Vulture,
28 Apr. 2025
-
There are few modern actors as purely watchable as Walton Goggins, a performer who is capable of both relishing in lowbrow material and elevating it with effortless charm.—
Daniel Dockery,
Vulture,
6 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Anti-intellectual.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/anti-intellectual. Accessed 25 May. 2025.
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