Intelligent — Meaning, Definition & Synonyms

Intelligent (adjective) — Senses, Synonyms & Antonyms

1. having or showing quickness of mind

   "proud parents typically insist that their child is intelligent way beyond his or her years"

   "his intelligent response to the emergency averted a disaster"

   similar: alert, brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, exceptional, fast, hyperintelligent, keen, nimble, quick, quick-witted, sharp, sharp-witted, smart, supersmart, ultrasmart
   related: apt, ingenious, resourceful, acute, astute, discerning, heady, insightful, knowing, perceptive, percipient, perspicacious, sagacious, sapient, savvy, wise, cerebral, erudite, genial, highbrow, knowledgeable, learned, literate, scholarly, well-read, educated, informed, schooled, skilled, trained, creative, inventive, judicious, prudent, sage, sane, sensible, sound, crafty, cunning, foxy, shrewd, wily, logical, rational, reasonable
   opposite: airheaded, birdbrained, boneheaded, brain-dead, brainless, bubbleheaded, chuckleheaded, dense, dim, dim-witted, doltish, dopey, dorky (slang), dull, dumb, dunderheaded, empty-headed, fatuous, gormless (chiefly British), half-witted, knuckleheaded, lamebrain, lunkheaded, mindless, obtuse, opaque, pinheaded, senseless, simple, slow, slow-witted, soft, softheaded, stupid, thick, thickheaded, thick-witted, unbrilliant, unintelligent, unsmart, vacuous, weak-minded, witless
   near: feebleminded, simpleminded, boobish, foolish, half-baked, idiotic, imbecile, moronic, silly, ignorant, illiterate, lowbrow, nonintellectual, unacademic, uneducated, uninformed, unintellectual, untaught, unthinking, absurd, asinine, balmy, cockeyed, crackpot, crazy, cuckoo, daffy, daft, dippy, dotty, featherheaded, fool, harebrained, insane, kooky, loony, mad, nonsensical, nutty, preposterous, sappy, screwball, tomfool, unwise, wacky, zany

2. having the ability to reason

   "there is some debate over whether dolphins are intelligent animals"

   similar: rational, reasonable, reasoning, thinking
   related: analytic, logical, brainy, cerebral, highbrow, highbrowed, intellectual, cognitional, cognitive, mental, levelheaded, practical, sane, sensible, sober
   opposite: irrational, nonrational, nonthinking, unintelligent, unreasonable, unreasoning, unthinking
   near: brainless, dense, doltish, dopey, dorky (slang), dull, dumb, fatuous, half-witted, mindless, obtuse, senseless, slow, stupid, thickheaded, fallacious, groundless, illogical, invalid, nonsensical

3. having or showing good judgment and restraint especially in conduct or speech

   "the only intelligent response to such a tasteless joke is to quickly change the subject"

   similar: discreet, judgmatic, judicious, prudent
   related: cautious, chary, circumspect, cozy, forehanded, foresighted, foresightful, forethoughtful, discerning, discriminating, sage, sane, sapient, senseful, sensible, wise, canny, provident, astute, perspicacious, sagacious, shrewd
   opposite: imprudent, indiscreet, injudicious
   near: careless, heedless, incautious, rash, improvident, shortsighted, foolish, unwise