INTELLECT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does intellect mean? 

• INTELLECT (noun)
  The noun INTELLECT has 3 senses:

1. knowledge and intellectual ability

2. the capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination

3. a person who uses the mind creatively

  Familiarity information: INTELLECT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INTELLECT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Knowledge and intellectual ability

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

intellect; mind

Context example:

he has a keen intellect

Hypernyms ("intellect" is a kind of...):

intelligence (the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience)

Attribute:

intellectual (appealing to or using the intellect)

nonintellectual (not intellectual)

Derivation:

intellectual (involving intelligence rather than emotions or instinct)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

intellect; reason; understanding

Context example:

we are told that man is endowed with reason and capable of distinguishing good from evil

Hypernyms ("intellect" is a kind of...):

faculty; mental faculty; module (one of the inherent cognitive or perceptual powers of the mind)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person who uses the mind creatively

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

intellect; intellectual

Hypernyms ("intellect" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "intellect"):

mentor; wise man (a wise and trusted guide and advisor)

wonderer (someone who is curious about something)

illusionist; seer; visionary (a person with unusual powers of foresight)

thinker (someone who exercises the mind (usually in an effort to reach a decision))

creative thinker; mind; thinker (an important intellectual)

idealogue; theoretician; theoriser; theorist; theorizer (someone who theorizes (especially in science or art))

synthesiser; synthesist; synthesizer (an intellectual who synthesizes or uses synthetic methods)

subjectivist (a person who subscribes to subjectivism)

specifier (someone who draws up specifications giving details (as for obtaining a patent))

doubter; sceptic; skeptic (someone who habitually doubts accepted beliefs)

bookman; scholar; scholarly person; student (a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines)

anomalist (someone who has a special interest in exceptional cases)

highbrow (a person of intellectual or erudite tastes)

brain; brainiac; Einstein; genius; mastermind (someone who has exceptional intellectual ability and originality)

expositor; expounder (a person who explains)

egghead (an intellectual; a very studious and academic person)

decipherer; decoder (the kind of intellectual who converts messages from a code to plain text)

clever clogs; clever Dick (an intellectual who is ostentatiously and irritatingly knowledgeable)

bel esprit (a witty or clever person with a fine mind)

aphorist (someone who formulates aphorisms or who repeats aphorisms)

alchemist (one who was versed in the practice of alchemy and who sought an elixir of life and a panacea and an alkahest and the philosopher's stone)

exponent (someone who expounds and interprets or explains)

 Context examples 

But where will-power and intellect go together, there is always a way out.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What a pigmy intellect she had, and what giant propensities!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Another and a better gift than intellect was shown her in a most unexpected manner.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

And he knew that higher intellects than those of the Morse circle were to be found in the world.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But no one knows the resources of that man's intellect, except myself!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A group of disorders that affect a person's ability to learn or process specific types of information which is in contrast to his/her apparent level of intellect.

(Learning Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

She would endeavour to be rational, and to deserve the right of judging of Miss Crawford's character, and the privilege of true solicitude for him by a sound intellect and an honest heart.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It is a feeling, a sentiment, a something based upon illusion and not a product of the intellect at all.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But Mr. Elton had only drunk wine enough to elevate his spirits, not at all to confuse his intellects.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

A disorder characterized by an impairment in the development of an individual's expressive language which is in contrast to his/her nonverbal intellect and receptive language development.

(Expressive Language Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)