intelligence
//ɪnˈtɛl.ɪ.d͡ʒəns//
Forms
- Plural
- intelligences
Definitions
1.The capacity of mind, especially to understand principles, truths, facts or meanings, acquire knowledge, and apply it to practice; the ability to comprehend and learn; the ability to process sentient experience to generate true beliefs with a justified degree of confidence.
- Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.
2.An entity that has such capacities.
- He passes beyond the projections and thought forms of his own creation to the wholly other and independent world of the angelic intelligences.
- The living intelligence, the Martian within the hood, was slain and splashed to the four winds of heaven, and the thing was now but a mere intricate device of metal whirling to destruction.
- But there are latent powers within man alone that are not yet fully understood and[…] we cannot definitely state what is, and what is not, due to the interference or influence of discarnate intelligences.
3.Information, often secret, about an enemy or about hostile activities.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1465
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English intelligence, from Old French intelligence, from Latin intelligentia, which is from inter- (“between”) + legere (“to choose, pick out, read”), from Proto-Italic *legō (“to care”).
Doublet of intelligentsia.