Mastermind

//ˈmæs.tɚˌmaɪnd// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person with an extraordinary intellect or skill that is markedly superior to their peers.

    "At long intervals some master-minds appeared, looking upon each advance in practical science as a retro-gradation in the true utility."

  2. 2
    someone who has exceptional intellectual ability and originality wordnet
  3. 3
    A person responsible for the highest level of planning and execution of a major operation. idiomatic

    "The first was with none other than Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM), mastermind of the 9/11 attacks."

  4. 4
    someone who creates new things wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To act in the role of mastermind. transitive

    "It would later be revealed that the corporation contributed over a quarter of a million dollars to the effort—a whopping 93 percent of the total coffer—and hired a team of media and political experts to mastermind it."

  2. 2
    plan and direct (a complex undertaking) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
geniusacademicianacearchitectauthoritybe responsible for

Example

More examples

"Dan thinks that Linda was the mastermind of the murder."

Etymology

From master + mind.

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