What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Rational vs Intellectual - What's the difference?

rational | intellectual |

As adjectives the difference between rational and intellectual

is that rational is capable of reasoning while intellectual is belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive; as, intellectual powers, activities, etc.

As nouns the difference between rational and intellectual

is that rational is a rational number: a number that can be expressed as the quotient of two integers while intellectual is an intelligent, learned person, especially one who discourses about learned matters.

rational

English

Alternative forms

* rationall (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) rationel, rational, from (etyl)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Capable of reasoning.
  • *
  • Logically sound; not contradictory or otherwise absurd.
  • (label) Healthy or balanced intellectually; exhibiting reasonableness.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Magician’s brain , passage=The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason. The architect of modern science was himself not very modern. He was obsessed with alchemy.}}
  • Of a number, capable of being expressed as the ratio of two integers.
  • ¾ is a rational number, but ?2 is an irrational number.
  • Of an algebraic expression, capable of being expressed as the ratio of two polynomials.
  • (label) Expressing the type, structure, relations, and reactions of a compound; graphic; said of formulae.
  • Antonyms
    * (reasonable) absurd, irrational, nonsensical * (capable of reasoning) arational, irrational, non-rational * (number theory) irrational

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) rational, from , for which see the first etymology.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (mathematics) A rational number: a number that can be expressed as the quotient of two integers.
  • The quotient of two rationals''' is again a '''rational .
  • A rational being.
  • (Young)

    References

    * *

    Anagrams

    *

    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