Word.ws English Dictionary

sapiosexual

Syllables: sa·pi·o·sex·ualUK/ˌseɪ.pi.əˈsɛk.ʃuː.əl//ˌseɪ.pi.əˈsɛk.ʃu.əl/

sapiosexual adjective: sexually attracted to intellectual or mental qualities over appearance.

Adjective

sapiosexual (not comparable)

  1. Sexually attracted to intellectual or mental qualities over appearance.
    • I am what is known as a sapiosexual—defined by Urban Dictionary as one who finds intelligence the most sexually attractive feature.2013 June 20, DoubleX Staff, “Are Women Turned on by Pictures of Naked Men? Kevin Costner.”, in Slate
    • For Mr. Okeke-Diagne, being sapiosexual means intellectual conversation is a key part of dating and sex.2017 June 2, Anna North, “The Hottest Body Part? For a Sapiosexual, It’s the Brain”, in New York Times

Noun

sapiosexual (plural sapiosexuals)

  1. A person who is sapiosexual.
    • You see, for a true geek there's often little difference, because when you engage our brains, which are connected to our genitals, it often turns on our lust response (we're quite often sapiosexuals - people who lust after intellect first), but it's the *brain* you aim for, the intellect, to turn...2005 October 20, CatDeville [username], “Re: Struggling with the details”, in alt.polyamory (Usenet)
    • In Study 2 we tapped attitudes toward a largely unknown sexual orientation group, sapiosexuals (those sexually attracted to the human mind).
      […]
      Participants indicated their familiarity with heterosexuals, homosexuals, bisexuals, asexuals, and sapiosexuals […]2012 April 24, Cara C. MacInnis, Gordon Hodson, “Intergroup bias toward 'Group X': Evidence of prejudice, dehumanization, avoidance, and discrimination against asexuals”, in Group Processes &...

Antonyms of sapiosexual

Forms of sapiosexual

pluralsapiosexuals

Origin of sapiosexual

From Latin sapiens + -o- + -sexual. Coined by Darren Stalder in 1998 to describe his own sexuality.

Words formed from sapiosexual

Words that rhyme with sapiosexual

24 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sapiosexual

What does sapiosexual mean?
Sapiosexual means sexually attracted to intellectual or mental qualities over appearance.
What part of speech is sapiosexual?
Sapiosexual can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce sapiosexual?
Sapiosexual is pronounced /ˌseɪ.pi.əˈsɛk.ʃuː.əl/ (UK).

Words near sapiosexual in the dictionary

  1. sapintoxins
  2. sapio
  3. sapiophile
  4. sapiophiles
  5. sapios
  6. sapiosexual
  7. sapiosexuality
  8. sapiosexuals
  9. Sapir
  10. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
  11. Sapirian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sapiosexual (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sapiosexual.wav.

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