Genius — Meaning, Definition & Synonyms

Genius (noun) — Senses, Synonyms & Antonyms

1. a very smart person

   "the 16-year-old college graduate was considered to be a genius"

   similar: brain, brainiac, intellect, thinker, whiz, wiz, wizard
   related: polyhistor, polymath, Renaissance man, blue, bluestocking, highbrow, intellectual, sage, savant, geek, longhair, nerd, master, virtuoso, ace, crackerjack, natural
   opposite: blockhead, dodo, dolt, dope, dumbbell, dummy, dunce, fathead, goon, half-wit, hammerhead, idiot, imbecile, knucklehead, moron, nitwit, numskull, pinhead
   near: ignoramus, illiterate, know-nothing, lowbrow, anti-intellectual, philistine, ass, donkey, fool, jackass, beast, boor, cad, churl, clown, creep, cretin, cur, heel, jerk, louse, lout, skunk, snake, stinker

2. a special and usually inborn ability

   "had a genius for remembering long strings of numbers"

   "had a genius for saying the wrong thing, no matter what the social situation"

   similar: aptitude, bent, endowment, faculty, flair, gift, head, knack, talent
   related: affinity, bias, disposition, habitude, impulse, inclination, leaning, partiality, penchant, predilection, predisposition, proclivity, propensity, tendency, turn, ear, eye, mind, nose, feel, hang, instinct, touch, way, capability, competence, facility, proficiency, skill, capacity, potential, power, forte, specialism, speciality, specialty
   near: disability, handicap, inability, incapacity, shortcoming, weakness

3. a habitual attraction to some activity or thing

   "a genius for gambling over his head"

   similar: affection, affinity, aptitude, bent, bias, bone, devices, disposition, habitude, impulse, inclination, leaning, partiality, penchant, predilection, predisposition, proclivity, propensity, tendency, turn
   related: favor, one-sidedness, partisanship, prejudice, endowment, faculty, flair, gift, knack, talent, addiction, appetite, fancy, fondness, like, liking, preference, taste, forte, speciality, specialty, convention, custom, habit, pattern, practice, routine, trick, way, wont, eccentricity, idiosyncrasy, kink, oddity, peculiarity, quirk, singularity
   near: allergy, averseness, aversion, disfavor, disinclination, dislike, disliking, disrelish, distaste, detachment, impartiality, neutrality, objectivity, apathy, disinterestedness, indifference, insouciance, nonchalance, unconcern

4. the set of qualities that makes a person, a group of people, or a thing different from others

   "putting the needs of the individual before those of society is alien to the genius of the Japanese people"

   similar: character, clay, colors, complexion, constitution, nature, personality, self, tone
   related: distinctiveness, distinctness, individuality, singularity, uniqueness, attribute, characteristic, earmark, essentiality, feature, flavor, hallmark, mark, point, property, savor, stamp, trait, disposition, grain, sort, temper, temperament, composition, makeup, essence, interior, interiority, soul, spirit, metal, stuff, substance, habit, way

5. a visible representation of something abstract (as a quality)

   "the giant tortoise would seem to be the very genius of the unfathomable ancientness that one associates with the Galápagos Islands"

   similar: abstract, avatar, embodier, embodiment, epitome, externalization, icon, image, incarnation, incorporation, instantiation, manifestation, objectification, personification, personifier
   related: actualization, concretization, exemplification, personalization, realization, substantiation, essence, quintessence, soul, archetype, exemplar, model, paradigm, pattern, reincarnation