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Observant vs Intellectual - What's the difference?

observant | intellectual |

As nouns the difference between observant and intellectual

is that observant is a member of a franciscan order that strictly observes the rules of st francis while intellectual is an intelligent, learned person, especially one who discourses about learned matters.

As an adjective intellectual is

belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive; as, intellectual powers, activities, etc.

observant

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Alert and paying close attention; watchful.
    • The observant police officer noticed that my tax disk was out-of-date.
  • Diligently attentive in observing a law, custom, duty or principle; regardful; mindful.
    • I was normally observant of the local parking restrictions.
  • * Sir K. Digby
    • We are told how observant Alexander was of his master Aristotle.

    Antonyms

    * introspective * nonobservant * unobservant

    Anagrams

    * ----

    intellectual

    English

    (wikipedia intellectual) (Webster 1913)

    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

    Related terms

    * intellect * intellectualize * intelligence * intelligent * overintellectualize

    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