I. |int ə l|ekch(əw)əl, -ksh- adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French intellectuel, from Latin intellectualis, from intellectus intellect + -alis -al
1.
a. : of, belonging to, or relating to the intellect or its use : reflective , reasoning
satire is an intellectual weapon — Herbert Read
intellectual powers
enabling them to function on the intellectual plane — Bruce Bliven b.1889
began his intellectual career as a mathematician — F.S.C.Northrop
— contrasted with animal
b. : having its source in or being preeminently guided by the intellect as distinguished from emotion or experience : rational
has a tremendous intellectual sympathy for oppressed people — Green Peyton
think of such playwrights as coldly intellectual — E.R.Bentley
in no sense an intellectual or metaphysical painter — Herbert Read
the most subtle and intellectual edifice ever made by man — Weston La Barre
disseminated the severe and intellectual Florentine style — National Gallery of Art
c. : calling the intellect into play : requiring use of the intellect
as abstruse and intellectual as a chess problem
there should be a distinction … between manual or copying work and intellectual work — K.C.Wheare
2. obsolete : apprehensible by the intellect alone : immaterial , spiritual , ideal
3.
a. archaic : endowed with the power to know and reason : intelligent
b.
(1) : devoted to matters of the mind and especially to the arts and letters : given to study, reflection, and speculation especially concerning large or abstract issues
sort of the intellectual type, but most of the gang are real people — W.H.Whyte
maintain a person can be intellectual and not be intelligent — Jean Stafford
(2) : engaged in activity requiring preeminently the use of the intellect : engaged in mental as distinguished from manual labor ; especially : engaged in creative literary, artistic, or scientific labor
intellectual workers should be able to deduct from their income tax the amounts which they must spend for books, documents, research work, and materials in general — Report: (Canadian) Royal Commission on National Development
(3) : reflecting, indicating, or suggesting devotion to matters of the mind : indicating or associated with a studious reflective temper or large mental endowment
had a high intellectual forehead — Edmund Wilson
Synonyms: see mental
II. noun
( -s )
1. obsolete : intellect , understanding
2. intellectuals plural , archaic : intellectual powers or faculties
3.
a. : a person of superior intelligence : a brainy person
an uneducated intellectual who had directed his great powers to accumulation and exploitation — S.H.Adams
an intellectual is a person endowed with unusual mental capacity — Saturday Review
b.
(1) : a person devoted to matters of the mind and especially to the arts and letters : one given to study, reflection, and speculation especially concerning large, profound, or abstract issues
afraid to be an intellectual — if you wanted to go to art galleries, you were immediately suspect — P.E.Deutschman
a friendly manner, a quiet voice, and the face of an intellectual — William Ridsdale
(2) : a person claiming to belong to an intellectual elite or caste, given to empty theorizing or cerebration, and often inept in the solution of practical problems : egghead
don't go for the intellectual who knows nothing but $2 words — J.P.Whitcomb
that dreary and narrow creature an intellectual — Manchester Guardian Weekly
intellectual is an ugly word … it implies consummate snobbery — Russell Kirk
c. : a person engaged in activity requiring preeminently the use of the intellect : one engaged in mental as distinguished from manual labor
intellectuals … are functioning groups of society, like any of the professionals, such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, professors — F.G.Wilson