mastermind
UK/ˈmɑː.stə.mʌɪnd//ˈmæs.tɚˌmaɪnd/
mastermind noun: a person with an extraordinary intellect or skill that is markedly superior to their peers.
Noun
mastermind (plural masterminds)
- A person with an extraordinary intellect or skill that is markedly superior to their peers.
- At long intervals some master-minds appeared, looking upon each advance in practical science as a retro-gradation in the true utility.1840, Edgar Allan Poe, The Colloquy of Monos and Una
- His first outside hire wasn't an electronics whiz or a mechanical mastermind, but a young industrial designer, a creature hitherto unknown at DEKA.2003, Steve Kemper, chapter 2, in Code Name Ginger: the Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen's Quest to Invent a New World, →ISBN, page 34
- A person responsible for the highest level of planning and execution of a major operation.
- The first was with none other than Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM), mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.2007, Mark S. Hamm, chapter 6, in Terrorism as Crime: from Oklahoma City to Al-Qaeda and Beyond, →ISBN, page 196
- Prosecutors later suspected that Wang, chairman of Ciji Temple in Tainan's Syuejia District, was the mastermind behind the shootings, but the court acquitted him of the charge because of insufficient evidence.2025 March 14, Hsieh Hsin-en, Ko Lin, “Supreme Court upholds verdicts in 2022 Tainan shooting case”, in Focus Taiwan, archived from the original on 14 Mar 2025, Society
Verb
mastermind (third-person singular simple present masterminds, present participle masterminding, simple past and past participle masterminded)
- To plan or execute (a project) in the role of mastermind.
- It would later be revealed that the corporation contributed over a quarter of a million dollars to the effort—a whopping 93 percent of the total coffer—and hired a team of media and political experts to mastermind it.2007, Kevin Danaher et al., Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots, →ISBN, page 136
- Travelling over the route today, it is well to remember the ongoing role of the Friends of the S&C and the work of the late Ron Cotton. He masterminded its revival, thereby reversing the role he had been given by BR to bring about its closure.2020 July 1, David Allen, “Signalling from Leeds along the S&C”, in Rail, page 78
mastermind meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
mastermind in Hindi
- मास्टरमाइंड, मास्टरमाईंड
mastermind in Marathi
- मास्टरमाइंड, मास्टरमाईंड, मास्टरमाइंडला
mastermind in Urdu
- ماسٹر مائنڈ, ماسٹر مینڈ
mastermind in Bengali
- মাস্টারমাইন্ড, মাস্টারমাইণ্ড
More languagesFewer languages
- mastermind in Telugu
- మాస్టర్మైండ్
- mastermind in Malayalam
- മുഖ്യസൂത്രധാരനായിരിക്കുക, പദ്ധതി ആസൂത്രണം ചെയതു നടപ്പാക്കുക, പ്രധാന ആസൂത്രകനായിരിക്കുക, ബുദ്ധികേന്ദ്രമായിരിക്കുക
- mastermind in Kannada
- ಬಹಳ ಬುದ್ಧಿವಂತ, ಪ್ರಚಂಡ ಧೀಮಂತ, ಮಹಾಪ್ರಜ್ಞಾವಂತ, ಮಹಾಮೇಧಾವಿ
- mastermind in Punjabi
- ਮਾਸਟਰਮਾਈਂਡ
- mastermind in Gujarati
- માસ્ટરમાઈન્ડ, માસ્ટરમાઇન્ડ, માસ્ટરમાઇંડ
- mastermind in Odia
- ମାଷ୍ଟରମାଇଣ୍ଡ, ମାଷ୍ଟରମାଇଣ୍ଡ୍, ମାସ୍ଟରମାଇଣ୍ଡ
- mastermind in Nepali
- मास्टरमाइन्ड, मास्टरमाईन्ड, मास्टरमाइण्ड
- mastermind in Indonesian
- dalang, mendalangi
Examples of mastermind in a sentence
- Already notorious for his harshness, it was he who had masterminded the defeat of the anti-caliph.
- "We are still investigating the motive and the whereabouts of any mastermind."
- These battles are masterminded by tattooed gang leaders called shot callers.
Forms of mastermind
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | masterminds |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | masterminds |
| present participle | masterminding |
| past participle | masterminded |
| past | masterminded |
Origin of mastermind
From master + mind.
Words formed from mastermind
Questions about mastermind
- What does mastermind mean?
- Mastermind means a person with an extraordinary intellect or skill that is markedly superior to their peers.
- What is mastermind in Hindi?
- Mastermind in Hindi is मास्टरमाइंड, मास्टरमाईंड. See Mastermind meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is mastermind?
- Mastermind can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce mastermind?
- Mastermind is pronounced /ˈmɑː.stə.mʌɪnd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of mastermind?
- The plural of mastermind is masterminds.
Words near mastermind in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mastermind (page history and authors); mastermind (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mastermind (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mastermind (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mastermind (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mastermind (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mastermind (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); mastermind (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mastermind (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mastermind (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mastermind (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mastermind (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-mastermind.ogg, en-au-mastermind.ogg.
Cite this entry: “mastermind.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mastermind. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.