Someone of below/average intelligence who does poorly in school, can't argue without hitting or yelling at someone, and refers to the "straw man argument" too much. They try to put a lot of thought into comebacks or their own opinions on things that do not need intellectual flexing, and then speed their voice up to make it sound like they're saying it with ease, but they really can't even understand what they're saying. The Pseudo-Intellectual evolves by the person mentioned "waking up" after watching a documentary, reading a book, etc. Half of the "intelligent" things they say are quoted, and they WILL ignore you if you mention it. They also try to aim at family members the most, trying to show that everyone in the family is stupid except him/her. The common Pseudo-Intellectual can be found on political forums like Zeitgeist, who plan on changing the world, but hardly do anything other than sitting on their computers planning. Their ego-centrist attitude may also come from the family holding the person the highest.

1. One who attempts to flex intellect that does not exist within his or her own mind.

2. Can probably be found with a thesaurus in hand, while in a chat room, looking up new insults that are synonymous with "stupid" in order to boost his or her own undeserved ego.

3. Typical cases of pseudo-intellectualism involve pre-pubescent 15 year olds that think they have everything figured out, including, but not limited to: life, religion, politics, education, and sex. Ironically, they have never quite experienced either of the aforementioned.

4. Pretends he or she has an opinion.

5. Posseses a severe tendency to blindly and wholeheartedly believe any bullshit they hear, only to subsequently regurgitate the misinformation to anyone they see in an asinine attempt to appear more intelligent than a used, broken condom.

6. Should the victim of the verbal onslaught happen to have a differing opinion, the pseudo-intellectual will revert to his or her thesaurus and insult the opposition with words he or she never knew existed, and probably cannot even pronounce.

7. Annoyingly and constantly refers to the word antidisestablishmentarianism, as if knowledge of said word defined his or her illegitimately high intelligence quotient.

8. Typically a hypocrite; creates many, many contradictions. Most online grammar/spelling Nazis can relate.

9. Always ends a bullshit "argument" with, "I win, so stfu." Win what, dipshits? Your opinions weren't fact in the first place.

the person above me^^^^

4 signs of the pseudo-intellectual

1. Quoting

2. Going against common thought without evidence

3. Bringing up intellectualism in non-requistite situations

4. Un-neccersary use of verbs and adjectives with 4 syllables or more

A person who uses "big words" to impress people, insists on being politically-correct all the time, constantly bitches about "the system", and thinks they're gods among men because they're atheist.

the act of going to a coffeeshop with an impressive book (Debord, Nietzche, or maybe an advance bio book) and flipping through the pages without comprehension in hopes of starting a conversation with another patron.

A Pseudo-Intellectual is somebody who thinks he's got it all figured out, but really doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.

Somebody that tries too hard to not be "typical" by saying they like whatever isn't the trend. Usually they listen to post-rock like Mogwai, Sigur Ros, and Interpol. (I like some of those bands too but I don't keep shoving my musical taste at a bunch of n*sync fans to try to feel a false sense of superiority) And they like anything described as "indie"; movies like Ghost World, Donnie Darko, Requiem for a Dream, and Whale Rider. If you said those movies were popular(which they pretty much are) they would get pissed. Basically, they're people that miss the point about actually enjoying something cause they're too caught up at trying to look cultured, therefore they are posers.