Intellectually

How to spell intellectually

14 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce intellectually

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does intellectually mean?

1. adverbIn a way that relates to the mind, reasoning, or the capacity for thought.

Intellectually in a sentence

• The course was demanding both physically and intellectually.

• She found the new role far more intellectually stimulating than her last job.

Where does intellectually come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb intellegere, meaning 'to understand' or 'to perceive', formed from inter 'between' and legere 'to choose, gather, or read'; the literal sense was something like 'to pick out between things'. The past participle gave intellectus, a noun for the act of understanding or the faculty of comprehension. From it came the medieval Latin adjective intellectualis, 'relating to the understanding', which English absorbed through Old French as 'intellectual' in the late 1300s. The adverb 'intellectually' was then built in English by adding the native ending -ly, and its multi-layered stack of suffixes (-ual plus -ly) is precisely what makes the spelling feel long and slippery. The same legere root survives in everyday relatives such as 'lecture', 'legible', and 'elegant', all linked by the idea of choosing or reading words.

How the word is built

• intellect (from Latin intellectus: perception, understanding)
• -ual (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)