What does intellectual mean?
Word: Intellectual
Part of Speech: Adjective and noun
Meaning: As an adjective, to do with the mind and thinking. As a noun, a person who spends a lot of time thinking about ideas, art or science.
Synonyms: academic, scholarly, thinker
How do you spell intellectual?
Syllables: in - tel - lec - tu - al
Tricky part: The ending -tual is said like chew-ul, so students write intellecchual or intellectul.
Watch out for: intellectul, intellecchual, intellectuel
Memory tip: Its ending is spelt -tual, as in actual and factual, even though it sounds like chew-ul.
Intellectual in a sentence
Example 1: Quiz contests are an intellectual challenge for the whole team.
Example 2: Rabindranath Tagore was a poet, painter and great intellectual.
Example 3: The debating club gives Omar intellectual pleasure every Friday.
Fun Fact
Intellectual property is the legal name for creations of the mind, such as books, songs, designs and inventions. Copyright and patents are two ways to protect it.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word intellectual as used in the sentence:
Solving riddles gives Meera a kind of intellectual exercise.
a) thoughtful
b) mental
c) physical
d) difficult
Show answer
c) physical. Exercise for the mind is the opposite of exercise for the body.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
The professor was known as a great atnulltcliee of her time.
a) intentional
b) intellectual
c) ineffectual
d) intelligent
Show answer
b) intellectual. Intelligent needs a g, intentional an o and ineffectual an f, none of which the jumble has.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
At the science fair, the judges praised the intelectual effort behind Arjun's model of a working windmill.
a) intelectual
b) science
c) judges
d) windmill
Show answer
a) intelectual. The word grows from intellect, so the double l stays.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word:
1. intellectual 2. psycology 3. philosofy 4. knowlege
a) the study of the mind and behaviour
b) concerned with ideas and reasoning
c) facts and skills you have learnt
d) the study of ideas about life and truth
Show answer
b) concerned with ideas and reasoning. Philosofy writes f for ph, psycology has lost the h after its c, and knowlege is short of a d.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. An intellectual discussion is mostly about ____.
a) clothes and fashion
b) ideas and arguments
c) jokes and pranks
d) food and recipes
Show answer
b) ideas and arguments
2. Which of these people is most likely to be called an intellectual?
a) a historian who writes thoughtful books
b) a pilot who flies long routes
c) a wrestler who trains every morning
d) a chef who runs a busy kitchen
Show answer
a) a historian who writes thoughtful books
