unintelligent

/'ʌnin'telidʤənt/

Thân thiện

The teacher explained the concept again for the unintelligent student.

Definition

Adjective: 1. Lacking intelligence or mental capacity: Describes a person, animal, or action that shows a deficiency in the ability to learn, understand, think, or reason. 2. Showing poor judgment or thought: Describes behavior, decisions, or remarks that are not smart, sensible, or well-considered.

Usage and Examples

The adjective unintelligent is used to describe a person, creature, or action. It is a formal and direct term, often carrying a negative judgment. It is typically used attributively (before a noun) or predicatively (after a linking verb like 'is' or 'seems').

• Attributive use:
• Predicative use:
• Describing a person:
• Describing behavior:

Advanced Usage

• "unintelligent design": A term used in philosophical or scientific debates, often satirically, to argue against the concept of "intelligent design" by pointing out perceived flaws or inefficiencies in nature.
  • Some critics of creationism cite the human appendix as an example of unintelligent design.
• In computing or AI, unintelligent can describe systems or algorithms that lack adaptive or learning capabilities.
  • The early search engines were unintelligent, returning results based solely on keyword matching.

Variants and Related Words

• Unintelligence (noun): The state or quality of being unintelligent.
  • His unintelligence on the subject was apparent.
• Intelligent (adjective): The direct antonym, meaning having or showing intelligence.
• Unintelligently (adverb): In an unintelligent manner.
  • He acted unintelligently, ignoring all the warning signs.

Synonyms

• Stupid: Lacking intelligence or common sense. (More blunt and potentially offensive than ).
• Foolish: Lacking good sense or judgment; unwise.
• Ignorant: Lacking knowledge or awareness. (Focuses on a lack of information rather than inherent mental capacity).
• Dull: Slow to understand; not intellectually sharp.
• Obtuse: Annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand.

Antonyms

• Intelligent
• Smart
• Bright
• Clever
• Astute

Related Phrases and Idioms

(Note: There are no common idioms that use the exact word "unintelligent." The concept is more commonly expressed through its synonyms in idiomatic language, e.g., "not the sharpest tool in the shed," "a few bricks short of a load.")

Học thuật

Adjective

1. lacking intelligence
   • a dull job with lazy and unintelligent co-workers

Từ đồng nghĩa

• stupid