Mastermind
nounA person who plans and directs a complex or ingenious scheme, or someone of outstanding intellect.
How to spell mastermind
10 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce mastermind
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does mastermind mean?
- nounA person who plans and directs a complex or ingenious scheme, or someone of outstanding intellect.
- verbTo plan and direct an ingenious or complicated undertaking.
Mastermind in a sentence
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noun
Police identified the mastermind behind the elaborate fraud.
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verb
He helped to mastermind the company's surprise takeover bid.
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noun
The mastermind of the marketing campaign earned a promotion.
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verb
A small team was able to mastermind the entire relocation in a month.
Where does mastermind come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a compound of two old English words, 'master' and 'mind', joined to describe an exceptional planning intellect. 'Master' came into English from the Latin magister, meaning a chief, teacher, or one in authority, arriving partly through Old English magister and partly reinforced by Old French maistre. 'Mind' is a native Germanic word, descended from Old English gemynd, meaning memory or the faculty of thought, and it is related to the Latin mens, meaning mind. The two words were fused in the early nineteenth century to mean a person of outstanding mental power directing a scheme, and the verb sense (to plan and control a complex undertaking) followed soon after. The spelling is mercifully transparent: it is simply 'master' plus 'mind' with no hidden letters, so the only real trap is forgetting that it is written as one solid word rather than two.
How the word is built
- master (one with control or great skill)
- mind (the intellect that plans)
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