intelligence

Noun

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.
   • 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...
   • 1936 Feb., F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Crack-Up", Esquire: ...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.

   Synonyms: brightness intellect smartness wit

   Antonyms: unintelligence

   1. (psychology) An individual's expected relative performance in a cognitive test.

      • intelligence quotient
      • Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. - 2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The...

      Synonyms: brightness intellect smartness wit

      Antonyms: unintelligence

   2. (chiefly uncountable) The quality of making use or having made use of such capacities: depth of understanding, mental quickness.

      • 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...

      Synonyms: brightness intellect smartness wit

      Antonyms: unintelligence

2. An entity that has such capacities.
   • The great Intelligences fair That range above our mortal state, In circle round the blessed gate, Received and gave him welcome there. - 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto LXXXIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward...
   • 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. - 1898, H.G. Wells, The War...
   • 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. - 1936, Rollo...

   Synonyms: intelligence sentient sapient sophont

3. Information, often secret, about an enemy or about hostile activities.
   • 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...

   1. (countable) A political or military department, agency or unit designed to gather information, usually secret, about the enemy or about hostile activities.

4. Acquaintance; intercourse; familiarity.
   • 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...
   • He liv’d rather in a fair Intelligence than any Friendſhip with the Favourites;[…] - 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....