INTELLECTUALS Synonyms: 36 Similar and Opposite Words

intellectuals

noun

plural of intellectual

as in nerds

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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Recent Examples of intellectuals Born in the Soviet Union in 1974, Beloozerov was raised by his mother Lena and stepfather Nikolai Beloozerov, a Soviet dissident and a mathematician, among a community of intellectuals in southwestern Moscow. — Isabelle Chapman, CNN Money, 10 Aug. 2026 This portrait of wannabe bohemians and intellectuals who adopt the fashions, mannerisms, and artistic practices of an earlier time has its own essential timelessness. — Justin Chang, New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2026 Postwar intellectuals used psychoanalytic ideas in a variety of ways, including to discuss race relations and homosexuality. — Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 4 Aug. 2026 This tradition of forceful anti-American sentiment among European intellectuals went into steep decline after the abrupt end of the Cold War in the late Eighties. — Cynthia Zarin, Harpers Magazine, 28 July 2026 Katherine Kelaidis argues that figures such as Heather Cox Richardson, Jill Lepore, Joanne Freeman, Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Kevin Kruse have become a new class of liberal public intellectuals, translating the past into political commentary. — Literary Hub, 23 July 2026 Childers, an associate professor of history at Colorado State University, said his concern is that, since the late 1970s, conservative intellectuals have pushed to privatize the park even further. — Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2026 During our two-hour lunch, the conversation almost never strayed from his favorite topics, which are Richard Hanania, Richard Hanania’s analysis of politics, and Richard Hanania’s place in the firmament of public intellectuals. — Gilad Edelman, The Atlantic, 19 July 2026 Christensen was accompanied by retired Homer scholars (often referred to as Homerists), editors, professors, historians and various public intellectuals. — Antonio Ferme, Variety, 18 July 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for intellectuals

Noun

The invite said something like technical alignment, and nobody senior goes to those, because that is the part where the nerds work out the pipes.

— Jason Snyder, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2026
There’s a lot going on — clearly too much to pronounce any of Tolkien’s placenames correctly, so just let go of that now, nerds, lest ye despair.

— Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 7 Aug. 2026

Definition of nerds

Noun

Funko occupies a massive physical footprint in a far corner of the convention center at SDCC, the annual pop culture festival that attracts over 130,000 fans and geeks from around the world.

— Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 24 July 2026
For aviation geeks or those who simply want to keep track of their plane’s unique flying data and route, squawk codes can be tracked on apps and websites like Flightradar24 and Flight Beacon.

— Staff Author, Travel + Leisure, 22 July 2026