I. ə̇n.ˈteləjən(t)s noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Old French, from Latin intelligentia, from intelligent-, intelligens (present participle) + -ia -y — more at intelligent
1.
a.
(1) : the faculty of understanding : capacity to know or apprehend : intellect , reason
intelligence , which emerged during the revolutionary cycles of matter as the highest form yet achieved — Hermann Reith
conceived of history as the expression of a divine intelligence
(2) Christian Science : the basic eternal quality or divine Mind
b. : the available ability as measured by intelligence tests or by other social criteria to use one's existing knowledge to meet new situations and to solve new problems, to learn, to foresee problems, to use symbols or relationships, to create new relationships, to think abstractly : ability to perceive one's environment, to deal with it symbolically, to deal with it effectively, to adjust to it, to work toward a goal : the degree of one's alertness, awareness, or acuity : ability to use with awareness the mechanism of reasoning whether conceived as a unified intellectual factor or as the aggregate of many intellectual factors or abilities, as intuitive or as analytic, as organismic, biological, physiological, psychological, or social in origin and nature
c. : mental acuteness : sagacity , shrewdness
did all he was asked to do with intelligence and great good humor
2.
a. : an intelligent being ; especially : an incorporeal spirit : angel
hierarchies of angelic intelligences — S.F.Mason
b. : a person of some intellectual capacity
all those intelligences we have agreed to call great — Times Literary Supplement
the greatest all-round intelligence writing in England — P.S.O'Hegarty
3.
a. : the act of understanding : comprehension , knowledge
faith is necessary to the intelligence of the Christian mysteries — Encyc. Americana
b.
(1) : information communicated : news , notice , advice
more weight is laid upon intelligence than on editorials — Horace Greeley
the joyful intelligence that there is hope — Georgina Grahame
from the engine-room voice tube came intelligence of more importance — M.S.Boylan
(2) : interchange of information : communication
accused of maintaining intelligence with the enemy
(3) obsolete : a piece of information — usually used in plural
(4) archaic : common understanding or mutual relations : acquaintance , intercourse
(5) : evaluated information concerning an enemy or possible enemy or a possible theater of operations and the conclusions drawn therefrom ; also : the section, agency, or persons engaged in obtaining such information : secret service
investigated me and told me I was qualified for Navy intelligence — T.F.Murphy
an intelligence bureau
available to American and allied intelligence organizations — L.W.Doob
Synonyms: see mind
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
obsolete : to bring tidings of (something) or to (someone)
III. noun
: the ability to perform computer functions