Intellect

//ˈɪntəlɛkt// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The faculty of thinking, judging, abstract reasoning, and conceptual understanding; the cognitive faculty. uncountable

    "Intellect is one of man's greatest powers."

  2. 2
    knowledge and intellectual ability wordnet
  3. 3
    The capacity of that faculty (in a particular person). uncountable

    "They were chosen because of their outstanding intellect."

  4. 4
    the capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination wordnet
  5. 5
    A person who has that faculty to a great degree. countable, uncountable

    "Some of the world's leading intellects were meeting there."

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  1. 6
    a person who uses the mind creatively wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
intellectualintellectualmindmindreasonreason

Example

More examples

"Opinion is ultimately determined by feelings, and not by the intellect."

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin intellēctus (“understanding, intellect”), from Latin intellegō (“understand; reason”), from inter (“between, among”) + legō (“read”), with connotation of bind.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.