intellectual

1 much given to learning and thinking as the daughter of college professors, she's used to being around intellectual people Synonyms blue, cerebral, eggheaded, geeky, highbrow, highbrowed, intellectualist, intellectualistic, long-haired (or longhair), nerdish, nerdy Related Words cultivated, cultured; middlebrow; erudite, learned, literate, polyhistoric, polymath (or polymathic), scholarly, well-read; academic (also academical), bookish, professorial; didactic, high-toned, hyperintellectual, pedantic; high-hat, snobbish, snobby, snooty; educated, schooled; brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, intelligent, quick-witted, smart Near Antonyms uncultivated, uncultured; ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, unlettered, unread; dumb, foolish, idiotic (also idiotical), moronic, slow, stupid, unintelligent; benighted, unenlightened Antonyms anti-intellectual, lowbrow, nonintellectual, philistine

2 of or relating to the mind intellectual pursuits such as reading and studying Synonyms cerebral, inner, mental, interior, internal, psychological (also psychologic)Related Words cognitive, conscious, epistemic, knowing; noetic; psychic (also psychical), telepathic; alert, brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, intelligent, quick-witted, rational, reasoning, sharp, sharp-witted, smart, thinkingNear Antonyms bodily, carnal, corporal, corporeal, fleshly, physical, somatic; unconscious; brainless, dense, doltish, dopey (also dopy), fatuous, half-witted, mindless, obtuse, simple, slow-witted, stupid, thick, thickheaded, unintelligent, weak-minded, witlessAntonyms nonmental

3 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 Synonyms educational, academic, scholarly, scholasticRelated Words bookish, donnish, geeky, nerdish, nerdy, pedagogical (also pedagogic), pedantic, professorial, tweedy; curricular; educative, instructive; collegiate, graduate, postgraduateNear Antonyms cocurricular, extracurricular; noncollegiateAntonyms nonacademic, noneducational, unacademic, unscholarly

a person with strong intellectual interests discovered that in politics a reputation for being an intellectual was regarded as a liability Synonyms double-dome, egghead, geek, highbrow, intellectualist, longhair, nerd Related Words blue, bluestocking; Brahmin, mandarin, sage; intellectualizer, pseud [British]; brain, genius, intellect, thinker, whiz, wizard Near Antonyms blockhead, dolt, dope, dumbbell, dummy, dunce, fathead, half-wit, imbecile, moron, nitwit, pinhead, simpleton Antonyms anti-intellectual, lowbrow, philistine