Skip to main content

Pseudo-Intellectual

The "intellectual" way to say smartass/smart-aleck/smartypants
The liberal arts guy are sorta Pseudo-Intellectual
by Sir. B September 19, 2020
mugGet the Pseudo-Intellectualmug.

Community College Intellectual

A person who has taken 100 level classes at the local junior college in philosophy, psychology, and literature and pretends to be an intellectual by sprinkling obscure references in everyday speech. Somehow a reference to Kierkegaard will suddenly show up when deciding which toppings should go on a pizza. Or some reference they heard from the show Big Bang Theory, without citing the source, about Schrödinger's cat will pop up because they think it will impress everyone.
"If John is so smart, why does he work as a dishwasher at Shakey's"

"Don't be fooled, John is a Community College Intellectual with an inferiority complex."
by artist1955 November 18, 2022
mugGet the Community College Intellectualmug.

Pseudo-intellectual

An individual who spends more time trying to flex their intellect rather than actually wanting to learn. Pseudo-intellectuals aren't unintelligent or uneducated per se, however the crux of the issue is that they are not as intelligent as they are letting on. For example, to be an intellect on a specific subject, an intellectual would read multiple books or articles then study them in order to retain all the information. A pseudo-intellectual would read one article and label themselves an expert on the subject.
Ways to spot a pseudo-intellectual

1. Plagiarising
2. Quoting
3. Using advanced language to make themselves sound smart, but fails because they use the word incorrectly
4. They use their knowledge as a weapon. For example smart people want to pass on the knowledge they have to other people to inform them on a certain subject. Pseudo-intellectuals on the other hand seek to impress and show off, so put others down to increase their feelings of superiority and lower the self worth of others for their own personal gain
5. They like to start arguments whether it is on politics, philosophy, religion or science, but it ends up backfiring on them due to only retaining snippets of information on these topics, but not the full story, whereas their opponent has been pre-educated before the debate and read multiples books and sources on the topic throughly, thus absolutely thrashing the pseudo-intellectual in a debate. Ultimately never begin a debate on something you know nothing about because people will get the impression thag you're just desperate to flex your knowledge when there probably isn't much of it.
by UltimateDoge May 25, 2022
mugGet the Pseudo-intellectualmug.

intellectually resting

When one decides not to call themselves stupid or if your brain isnt working, or the words your saying arent making any sense.
friend 1: Damn my brain isnt working

Friend 2. oh you mean intellectually resting
friend 1: yeah i guess you can say im intellectually resting
by Ri4Ri4 March 7, 2023
mugGet the intellectually restingmug.

Intellectual freedom

No such thing,

no really, there is no intellectual freedom... we have to many "bullies"
NERD: Hey, I have intellectual freed...

The poor boy might have had intellectual freedom but that didn't stop the terrorists from taking it away.
by eyemaweiner October 21, 2007
mugGet the Intellectual freedommug.

Intellectual

Wow Becky Palmer is so inspiringly intellectual
by thomasleighroberts August 5, 2022
mugGet the Intellectualmug.

Share this definition