From Old French intellectuel, from .

• IPA: /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/, /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃwəl/, /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃəl/

intellectual

1. Pertaining to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive.

   intellectual powers, activities, etc.

   • 1920, Harold Monro, Preface to ; an anthology of recent poetry

     Pleasure is various, but it cannot exist where the emotions or the imagination have not been powerfully stirred. Whether it be called sensual or intellectual, pleasure cannot be willed

2. Endowed with intellect; having a keen sense of understanding; having the capacity for higher forms of knowledge or thought; characterized by intelligence or cleverness

   an intellectual person

3. Suitable for exercising one's intellect; perceived by the intellect

   intellectual employments

4. Relating to the understanding; treating of the mind.

   intellectual philosophy, sometimes called "mental" philosophy

5. (archaic, poetic) Spiritual.
   • 1805, William Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book II, lines 331-334 (eds. Jonathan Wordsworth, M. H. Abrams, & Stephen Gill, published by W. W. Norton & Company, 1979):

     I deem not profitless those fleeting moods / Of shadowy exultation; not for this, / That they are kindred to our purer mind / And intellectual life […]

• nonintellectual

• intellect
• intellectualize
• intelligence
• intelligent
• overintellectualize

• French: intellectuel
• German: intellektuell
• Italian: intellettuale
• Portuguese: intelectual
• Russian: интеллектуа́льный
• Spanish: intelectual

• Italian: intellettuale
• Portuguese: intelectual

intellectual (plural intellectuals)

1. An intelligent, learned person, especially one who discourses about learned matters.

   Synonyms: highbrow, academic, scholar

   Coordinate terms: egghead, nerd, geek

   • 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn:

     It should be noted that there is now no intelligentsia that is not in some sense "Left". Perhaps the last right-wing intellectual was T. E. Lawrence. Since about 1930 everyone describable as an “intellectual” has lived in a state of chronic discontent with the existing order.

   • 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC ↗, section I, page 14 ↗:

     ‘You know I hate intellectuals.’
     ‘You mean you hate people who are cleverer than you are.’
     ‘Yes. I suppose that’s why I like you so much, Tom.’

2. (archaic) The intellect or understanding; mental powers or faculties.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, chapter 1, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC ↗, 1st book, page 2 ↗:

     […] although their intellectuals had not failed in the theory of truth, yet did the inservient and brutall faculties control the suggestion of reason […]

• French: intellectuel, intello (informal)
• German: Intellektueller, Intellektuelle
• Portuguese: intelectual
• Russian: интеллиге́нт