Meaning & use
brain
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablebiology
The organ inside your head that controls your body and lets you think, feel, and remember.
Grammar: Countable: a healthy brain, the brains of animals.
Patterns
- the brain of something
Sleep helps the brain store new memories.
Doctors scanned his brain after the fall.
A dolphin's brain is large for its body.
nouncountableinformal
Your mind or mental ability, especially intelligence.
Grammar: Often used with a possessive: use your brain.
Patterns
- have brains
- use your brain
She has the brains to run the company.
Use your brain before you sign anything.
He had brawn but not much brain.
nouncountableinformal
A very clever person, or the person who plans a group's activities.
Grammar: Used with the in the sense of leader: the brains behind it.
Patterns
- the brains behind something
She was the brains behind the whole design.
The class brain won the quiz again.
Police arrested the brains of the gang.
verbtransitiveinformalold-fashioned
To hit someone hard on the head.
Grammar: Informal and humorous in most uses.
Patterns
- brain someone with something
He nearly brained himself on the low beam.
She threatened to brain him with a frying pan.
Don't stand there or the swinging door will brain you.
Word forms
| plural | brains |
|---|---|
| third person singular | brains |
| past tense | brained |
| -ing form | braining |
Common combinations
- brain damage
- The accident caused serious brain damage.
- brain surgery
- Brain surgery lasted six hours.
- brain function
- Exercise improves brain function.
- the brains behind
- She was the brains behind the campaign.
- rack your brain
- I racked my brain but couldn't recall his name.
- pick someone's brain
- Can I pick your brain about the exam?
Synonyms and how they differ
- mind
- Mind refers to thought and consciousness rather than the physical organ.
- intellect
- Intellect is a formal word for the power of reasoning only.
- head
- Head can mean the body part or the thinking ability, but is less specific than brain.
- genius
- Genius means exceptional talent, a stronger claim than being the brains of a project.
Word family
- brainy adjective
- clever
- brainless adjective
- stupid
- brainstorm verb
- to generate ideas as a group
- brainchild noun
- an original idea credited to one person
- brainwash verb
- to force someone to change beliefs
Commonly confused: brain or brawn?
brain vs brawn
Brawn means physical strength, which is often contrasted with brain.
Practice
The robbery was planned by a quiet accountant, who turned out to be the ____ behind the whole gang.
Choose one answer.
The fixed phrase is the brains behind something. The singular brain is not used in this idiom, and brainy is an adjective.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “brain”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.