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Webster 1913 Edition


Intellectual

Inˊtel-lec′tu-al

(?; 135)
,
Adj.
[L.
intellectualis
: cf. F.
intellectuel
.]
1.
Belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental;
as,
intellectual
powers, activities, etc.
Logic is to teach us the right use of our reason or
intellectual
powers.
I. Watts.
2.
Endowed with intellect; having the power of understanding; having capacity for the higher forms of knowledge or thought; characterized by intelligence or mental capacity;
as, an
intellectual
person
.
Who would lose,
Though full of pain, this
intellectual
being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity?
Milton.
3.
Suitable for exercising the intellect; formed by, and existing for, the intellect alone; perceived by the intellect;
as,
intellectual
employments
.
4.
Relating to the understanding; treating of the mind;
as,
intellectual
philosophy, sometimes called “mental” philosophy
.

Inˊtel-lec′tu-al

,
Noun.
1.
The intellect or understanding; mental powers or faculties.
Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh,
Whose higher
intellectual
more I shun.
Milton.
I kept her
intellectuals
in a state of exercise.
De Quincey.

Webster 1828 Edition


Intellectual

INTELLECT'UAL

, a.
1.
Relating to the intellect or understanding; belonging to the mind; performed by the understanding; mental; as intellectual power or operations.
2.
Ideal; perceived by the intellect; existing in the understanding; as an intellectual scene.
3.
Having the power of understanding; as an intellectual being.
4.
Relating to the understanding; treating of the mind; as intellectual philosophy, now sometimes called mental philosophy.

INTELLECT'UAL

,
Noun.
The intellect or understanding. [Little used.]

Definition 2024


intellectual

intellectual

See also: intel·lectual

English

Alternative forms

Adjective

intellectual (comparative more intellectual, superlative most intellectual)

  1. Belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive; as, intellectual powers, activities, etc.
  2. Endowed with intellect; having the power of understanding; having capacity for the higher forms of knowledge or thought; characterized by intelligence or mental capacity; as, an intellectual person.
  3. Suitable for exercising the intellect; formed by, and existing for, the intellect alone; perceived by the intellect; as, intellectual employments.
  4. Relating to the understanding; treating of the mind; as, 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 ...

Antonyms

  • non-intellectual

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

intellectual (plural intellectuals)

  1. An intelligent, learned person, especially one who discourses about learned matters.
  2. (archaic) The intellect or understanding; mental powers or faculties.

Derived terms

See also

Translations