genius

1 a very smart person the 16-year-old college graduate was considered to be a genius Synonyms brain, brainiac, intellect, thinker, whiz, wiz, wizard Related Words polyhistor, polymath, Renaissance man; blue, bluestocking, highbrow, intellectual; sage, savant; egghead, geek, longhair, nerd; master, virtuoso; ace, crackerjack (also crackajack), natural Near Antonyms ignoramus, illiterate, know-nothing, lowbrow; anti-intellectual, philistine; 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, hammerhead, idiot, imbecile, knucklehead, moron, nitwit, numskull (or numbskull), pinhead

2 a special and usually inborn ability had a genius for remembering long strings of numbers had a genius for saying the wrong thing, no matter what the social situation Synonyms aptitude, bent, endowment, faculty, flair, talent, gift, head, knackRelated Words affinity, bias, disposition, habitude, impulse, inclination, leaning, partiality, penchant, predilection, predisposition, proclivity, propensity, tendency, turn; ear, eye, mind, nose; feel, hang, instinct, touch, way; capability, competence, facility, proficiency, skill; capacity, potential, power; forte, specialism, speciality, specialtyNear Antonyms disability, handicap, inability, incapacity; shortcoming, weakness

3 a habitual attraction to some activity or thing a genius for gambling over his head Synonyms affection, affinity, aptitude, bent, bias, bone, devices, disposition, inclination, habitude, impulse, leaning, partiality, penchant, predilection, predisposition, proclivity, propensity, tendency, turnRelated Words favor, one-sidedness, partisanship, prejudice; endowment, faculty, flair, inclination, gift, knack, talent; addiction, appetite, fancy, fondness, like, liking, preference, taste; forte, speciality, specialty; convention, custom, habit, pattern, practice (also practise), routine, trick, way, wont; eccentricity, idiosyncrasy, kink, oddity, peculiarity, quirk, singularityNear Antonyms allergy, averseness, aversion, disfavor, disinclination, dislike, disliking, disrelish, distaste; detachment, impartiality, neutrality, objectivity; apathy, disinterestedness, indifference, insouciance, nonchalance, unconcern

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 Synonyms character, clay, colors, complexion, constitution, nature, personality, self, toneRelated Words distinctiveness, distinctness, individuality, singularity, uniqueness; attribute, characteristic, earmark, essentiality, feature, flavor, hallmark, mark, point, property, savor (also savour), stamp, trait; disposition, grain, sort, temper, temperament; composition, makeup; essence, essentiality, interior, interiority, soul, spirit; metal, stuff, substance; habit, way

5 a visible representation of something abstract (as a quality) the giant tortoise would seem to be the very genius of the unfathomable ancientness that one associates with the Galápagos Islands Synonyms abstract, avatar, embodier, epitome, externalization, embodiment, icon (also ikon), image, incarnation, incorporation, instantiation, manifestation, objectification, personification, personifierRelated Words actualization, concretization, exemplification, personalization, realization, substantiation; essence, quintessence, soul; archetype, exemplar, model, paradigm, pattern; reincarnation