intellect
nounUK /ˈɪntəlɛkt/ · CA, US /ˈɪntəˌlɛkt/
Etymology Borrowed from Late Latin intellēctus (“understanding, intellect”), from Latin intellegō (“understand; reason”), from inter (“between, among”) + legō (“read”), with connotation of bind.
1
The faculty of thinking, judging, abstract reasoning, and conceptual understanding; the cognitive faculty.
- Intellect is one of man's greatest powers.
2
The capacity of that faculty (in a particular person).
- They were chosen because of their outstanding intellect.
- Arms of stripes and shirts of checks / You had a very nice intellect1983, “Intelligence”, in Shiver, performed by Virna Lindt:
3
A person who has that faculty to a great degree.
- Some of the world's leading intellects were meeting there.
- Derived terms
- artilect, intellected, superintellect
- Related terms
- intellectual, intellectualism, intellectualize, intelligence, intelligent, intelligentsia, intelligible, mind