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intelligent

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intelligent¹

  • /ɪnˈtɛlɪd͡ʒənt/

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én

Proto-Indo-European *-tér

Proto-Indo-European *h₁n̥tér

Proto-Italic *n̥ter

Latin inter

Latin inter-

Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-

Proto-Indo-European *-eti

Proto-Indo-European *léǵeti

Proto-Italic *legō

Latin legō?

Proto-Indo-European *h₂leg-

Proto-Indo-European *-eti

Proto-Indo-European *h₂légeti

Proto-Italic *legō?

Latin intelligō

Latin intelligēns

Middle French intelligent

English intelligent

From Middle French intelligent, from Latin intellegēns (“discerning”), present active participle of intellegō (“understand, comprehend”), itself from inter (“between”) + legō (“choose, pick out, read”).

adjective more intelligent · intelligenter · most intelligent · intelligentest · entelligent

  1. Of high or especially quick cognitive capacity, bright. Anstruther laughed good-naturedly. “[…] I shall take out half a dozen intelligent maistries from our Press and get them to give our villagers instruction when they begin work and when they are in the fields.”
  2. Well thought-out, well considered. The engineer had a very intelligent design proposal for the new car.
  3. Characterized by thoughtful interaction. My girlfriend and I had an intelligent conversation.
  4. Having at least a similar level of brain power to humankind. The hunt for extraterrestrial intelligent life continues.
  5. Having an environment-sensing automatically-invoked built-in computer capability. an intelligent network or keyboard

Similar: astute, brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, educated, genius, gifted, hivey, ingenious, intellectual, intelligent

intelligent²

Where it comes from

Partly from Russian интеллиге́нт (intelligént) and partly from the adjective.

noun intelligents · entelligent

  1. A member of the intelligentsia; an intelligent person. Now, as all intelligents are doomed to pass probationary states, it is highly probable that many intelligents, long antecedent to the foundation of our world, may have tarnished their innocence; or worse, many may have by disobedience fallen.

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