1
as in cerebral
much given to learning and thinking
as the daughter of college professors, she's used to being around intellectual people
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in mental
of or relating to the mind
intellectual pursuits such as reading and studying
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in educational
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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in nerd
a person with strong intellectual interests
discovered that in politics a reputation for being an intellectual was regarded as a liability
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of intellectual
Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 10 Mar. 2026
In fact, his manuscript is also about his fantasies—in this case, fantasies about a young man who has a meaningful, intellectual, tender affair with his older mentor.
—Meg Walters, Glamour, 9 Mar. 2026
Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 5 Mar. 2026
While the game remained popular among the elite its ornate imagery also continued to fascinate artists and intellectuals, laying the groundwork for symbolic interpretations.
—Literary Hub, 26 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for intellectual
Adjective
Higher education is supposed to have people who don’t bury their heads in the sand because an intellectual challenge is difficult.
—Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 10 Mar. 2026
In fact, his manuscript is also about his fantasies—in this case, fantasies about a young man who has a meaningful, intellectual, tender affair with his older mentor.
—Meg Walters, Glamour, 9 Mar. 2026
Noun
More to Explore In this environment, some activists and intellectuals adopted bikes as part of a resistance to car-centric capitalist modernism.
—Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 5 Mar. 2026
While the game remained popular among the elite its ornate imagery also continued to fascinate artists and intellectuals, laying the groundwork for symbolic interpretations.
—Literary Hub, 26 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for intellectual
Recent Examples of Synonyms for intellectual
Adjective
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Others assumed that a substantial proportion of children with autism have cerebral folate deficiency.—
Michal Ruprecht,
NPR,
16 Mar. 2026
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Photograph by Victor Llorente for The New Yorker The experimental singer-producer FKA twigs, for most of her career, has made cerebral electronic music intent on synchronizing the mind and body.—
Dan Stahl,
New Yorker,
13 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Clear agreements matter as the Moon conjoins mental Mercury in your 7th House of Alignments, encouraging honest dialogue that balances your needs with someone else’s.—
Tarot.com,
Baltimore Sun,
17 Mar. 2026
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Travel days have a way of demanding both mental and physical multitasking—from sticking to a budget and adjusting plans on the fly to quite literally juggling bags, boarding passes, and passports through crowded terminals.—
Olivia Young,
Travel + Leisure,
16 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Pathways to Citizenship is committed to cultivating the next generation of advocates through meaningful volunteer opportunities while providing skilled legal representation and educational support for immigrant families throughout San Diego.—
News Release,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
16 Mar. 2026
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Angela Noel, daughter of the late educator and civil rights activist, said her mother's push for educational equity was not without resistance.—
Anna Alejo,
CBS News,
16 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Fortunately for Rake, he got paired with a true research nerd.—
Jeff Spry,
Space.com,
8 Mar. 2026
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Computer nerds who’ve never left their basements and mama’s cooking are trying, and have taken over the sport with useless numbers, or analytics.—
Nick Canepa,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Campaigns are not academic exercises.—
Matt Klink,
Oc Register,
17 Mar. 2026
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What started as an academic experiment eventually developed into an advanced robotic system capable of achieving a world record.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
16 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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But in 2017, an internal audit found that 1 in 5 high school students and 1 in 4 elementary school students said they had been bullied in the last school year.—
Ruben Vives,
Los Angeles Times,
12 Mar. 2026
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The network aggressively defended itself against the defamation lawsuit in New York -- arguing that the company was facing imminent collapse over its own internal misconduct, not because of any negative coverage.—
JOSHUA GOODMAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS,
Arkansas Online,
11 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Leslie Hairston, a former City Council colleague of Preckwinkle’s whose South Side ward abutted hers, said Preckwinkle’s scholarly disposition shouldn’t be mistaken for indifference.—
A.D. Quig,
Chicago Tribune,
11 Mar. 2026
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Specifically, the study found the PATM patients emitted more petrochemicals, organosulfur compounds, and some aldehydes (including 39 times the normal amount of toluene, a chemical found in crude oil), among other distinctions—findings published in the scholarly journal Scientific Reports in 2023.—
Caroline Tien,
SELF,
6 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Deadline asks the Festival chief whether Series Mania is focused on the highbrow of the drama spectrum.—
Stewart Clarke,
Deadline,
6 Mar. 2025
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Wagner would be a sleepless highbrow’s favorite; the long, lush, unbroken lines of music share with the white-noise hum of the air-conditioner or the thrum of the painstaking lecture the quality of being absorbing without offering undue eventfulness.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
20 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Intellectual.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/intellectual. Accessed 18 Mar. 2026.
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