intelligence
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪnˈtɛl.ɪ.d͡ʒəns/
Forms: form: intelligences
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.
Senses: examples: text: Not so, however, with Tarzan, the man-child. His life amidst the dangers of the jungle had taught him to meet emergencies with self-confidence, and his higher intelligence resulted in a quickness of mental action far beyond the powers of the apes.
ref: 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 5, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, June 1914, →OCLC:
text: ...the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
ref: 1936 Feb., F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Crack-Up", Esquire
text: Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.
ref: 2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34:
synonyms: wit
intellect
brightness
antonyms: unintelligence
glosses: 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.
examples: text: From a religious point of view, a bodhisattva with sharp faculties and great intelligence can cause a tremendous upheaval if he or she misuses that power under the influence of negative emotions, like attachment and hatred.
ref: 2018, Dalai Lama, translated by Dhondup Tsering, Introduction to Buddhism, →ISBN, page 8:
glosses: The quality of making use or having made use of such capacities: depth of understanding, mental quickness.
examples: text: The great Intelligences fair
 That range above our mortal state,
 In circle round the blessed gate,
Received and gave him welcome there.
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto LXXXIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 118:
text: 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.
ref: 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: Heinemann, page 102:
text: 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.
ref: 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: John Long Ltd, page 275:
text: He passes beyond the projections and thought forms of his own creation to the wholly other and independent world of the angelic intelligences.
ref: 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 228:
synonyms: word: intelligence
word: sentient
word: sapient
word: sophont
glosses: An entity that has such capacities.
examples: text: Their lack of good intelligence also meant that they vastly overestimated the size of their foes for far too long, hails of armor-piercing shells doing comparatively little damage compared to the high explosive that they should have been using.
ref: 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 40:01 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022:
glosses: Information, often secret, about an enemy or about hostile activities.
glosses: A political or military department, agency or unit designed to gather information, usually secret, about the enemy or about hostile activities.
examples: text: Yet Josephus tells us of Phiala, a ſpring[…] into which Philip the Tetrarch caſt chaffe to try the experiment, and it was rendred up again into the ſtreame of Iordan. Whence he concluded, that this river entertained an underground intelligence with that fountain.
ref: 1650, Thomas Fuller, A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof, London, page 106:
text: He liv’d rather in a fair Intelligence than any Friendſhip with the Favourites;[…]
ref: 1702, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, Book I, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641, volume I, Oxford: The Theater, page 48:
glosses: Acquaintance; intercourse; familiarity.
Synonyms: word: brain
word: brains
word: cleverness
word: head
word: brightness
word: intellect
word: intelligence
word: mind
word: nous
word: psyche
word: reason
word: smartness
word: smarts
word: wit
word: judgment
Derived terms: adaptive intelligence
anti-intelligence
artificial general intelligence
artificial intelligence
business intelligence
CIA
co-intelligence
communications intelligence
computational intelligence
counter-intelligence
counter intelligence
counterintelligence
cyberintelligence
electronic intelligence
ELINT
emotional intelligence
extelligence
fluid intelligence
human intelligence
HUMINT
humint
hyperintelligence
insult one's intelligence
intel
intelligence agency
intelligence asset
intelligence community
intelligenced
intelligence-gathering
intelligencelike
intelligence office
intelligence officer
intelligence quotient
intelligencer
intelligence service
intelligencing
IQ
machine intelligence
MI5
MI6
misintelligence
nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people
nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public
nonintelligence
no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public
SIGINT
sigint
signals intelligence
SIS
social media intelligence
SOCMINT
superintelligence
swarm intelligence
synthetic intelligence
tactical intelligence
unintelligence
Related terms: word: genius
word: idiot
word: intelligent
word: weak-minded
word: stupid
word: intellectual
word: wisdom
word: witty