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Intellectual vs Historical - What's the difference?

intellectual | historical |

As adjectives the difference between intellectual and historical

is that intellectual is belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive; as, intellectual powers, activities, etc while historical is pertaining to the history, to what happened in the past.

As nouns the difference between intellectual and historical

is that intellectual is an intelligent, learned person, especially one who discourses about learned matters while historical is a historical romance.

intellectual

Alternative forms

* intellectuall (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive; as, intellectual powers, activities, etc.
  • 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.
  • Suitable for exercising the intellect; formed by, and existing for, the intellect alone; perceived by the intellect; as, intellectual employments.
  • Relating to the understanding; treating of the mind; as, intellectual philosophy, sometimes called "mental" philosophy.
  • (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

    * anti-intellectual * intellectual capital * intellectual disability * intellectual honesty * intellectuality * intellectual journey * intellectual property * intellectual rights * organic intellectual

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An intelligent, learned person, especially one who discourses about learned matters.
  • (archaic) The intellect or understanding; mental powers or faculties.
  • Derived terms

    * public intellectual

    See also

    * intelligentsia * egghead * nerd * geek * highbrow

    historical

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Pertaining to the history, to what happened in the past.
  • Usage notes

    * * See the usage notes about (m) for more.

    Synonyms

    * historic

    Derived terms

    * ahistorical * art-historical

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A historical romance.
  • * 1999 , Anne K. Kaler, Rosemary E. Johnson-Kurek, Romantic Conventions , page 63:
  • However, as regular romance readers know, the romance novels that appear on the best-seller lists are not Harlequins at all, but rather historicals and contemporaries, which vary widely from the Harlequin pattern in style, plot, and character.