Word.ws English Dictionary

intellectuals

intellectuals is the plural of intellectual.

Meaning of intellectual

Noun

intellectual (plural intellectuals)

  1. An intelligent, learned person, especially one who discourses about learned matters.
    • It should be noted that there is now no intelligentsia that is not in some sense "Left". Perhaps the last right-wing intellectual was T. E. Lawrence. Since about 1930 everyone describable as an “intellectual” has lived in a state of chronic discontent with the existing order.1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn
  2. (archaic) The intellect or understanding; mental powers or faculties.
    • […] although their intellectuals had not failed in the theory of truth, yet did the inservient and brutall faculties control the suggestion of reason […]1646, Thomas Browne, chapter 1, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 2

See all 7 meanings of intellectual

Phrases with intellectuals

Questions about intellectuals

What is intellectuals the plural of?
Intellectuals is the plural of intellectual.

Words near intellectuals in the dictionary

  1. intellectually challenged
  2. intellectually disabled
  3. intellectualness
  4. intellectualoid
  5. intellectualoids
  6. intellectuals
  7. intellegent
  8. intelligence
  9. intelligence agencies
  10. intelligence agency
  11. intelligence asset

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: intellectuals (page history and authors); intellectual (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “intellectuals.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/intellectuals. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.