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Intellectual vs Nonintellectual - What's the difference?

intellectual | nonintellectual |

As adjectives the difference between intellectual and nonintellectual

is that intellectual is belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive; as, intellectual powers, activities, etc while nonintellectual is not intellectual.

As nouns the difference between intellectual and nonintellectual

is that intellectual is an intelligent, learned person, especially one who discourses about learned matters while nonintellectual is a person who is not intellectual.

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

    nonintellectual

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not intellectual
  • Not involving the intellect
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person who is not intellectual