Intelligent

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪnˈtÉ›lɪdÊ’É™nt/

Alternative forms

• entelligent

Origin

From Middle French intelligent, from Latin intellegēns ("discerning"), present active participle of intellegō ("understand, comprehend"), itself from inter ("between") + legō ("choose, pick out, read").

Full definition of intelligent

Adjective

1. Of high or especially quick cognitive capacity, bright.
• 1927, F. E. Penny, Pulling the Strings Chapter 5, Anstruther laughed good-naturedly. “… I shall take out half a dozen intelligent maistries from our Press and get them to give our villagers instruction when they begin work and when they are in the fields.”
2. Well thought-out, well considered.
   The engineer had a very intelligent design proposal for the new car.
   The general devised an intelligent strategy for the southern campaign.
3. Characterized by thoughtful interaction.
   My girlfriend and I had an intelligent conversation.
4. Having the same level of brain power as mankind.
   The hunt for intelligent life.
5. Having an environment-sensing automatically-invoked built-in computer capability.
   An intelligent network or keyboard.

Synonyms

Antonyms

• stupid