Meaning & use
genius
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Meanings
nouncountable
A person with extraordinary intellectual or creative gifts, far beyond what most people achieve.
Grammar: Plural is geniuses: she is a genius; two young geniuses.
Patterns
- a genius at something
- a genius with something
Her teachers realized early on that she was a genius at mathematics.
The studio hired a young genius to design the game's music.
Nobody called him a genius while he was alive.
noununcountable
Remarkable natural talent or inventiveness, considered as a quality rather than a person.
Grammar: No plural and no article: the film shows real genius.
Patterns
- a stroke of genius
- genius for something
The design shows a rare genius for turning simple shapes into something moving.
Choosing that very quiet ending was a stroke of genius.
Edison said that genius was mostly hard work.
Word forms
| plural | geniuses |
|---|
Common combinations
- a stroke of genius
- Moving the meeting outdoors was a stroke of genius, and everyone relaxed.
- a mathematical genius
- A mathematical genius, she solved the puzzle in under a minute.
- a creative genius
- Critics often describe him as a creative genius ahead of his time.
- have a genius for something
- My aunt has a genius for making guests feel at home.
- stroke of pure genius
- Adding a pinch of salt to the caramel was a stroke of pure genius.
Synonyms and how they differ
- prodigy
- A prodigy is usually a young person who shows remarkable skill early, while a genius can be any age and the word suggests deeper originality.
- brilliance
- Brilliance describes impressive cleverness or skill and is a milder, more everyday word than genius, which implies something rare.
- virtuoso
- A virtuoso is a master of technique, especially in music, whereas a genius is admired for original ideas as well as skill.
Opposites
Word family
- genial adjective
- Friendly and cheerful; despite the spelling, it comes from a different meaning of the same Latin root.
- ingenious adjective
- Clever and inventive, as in an ingenious solution.
- ingenuity noun
- Skill at inventing or solving problems in clever ways.
- engineer noun
- A person who designs or builds things; historically linked to the idea of inventive talent.
Commonly confused: genius or genie?
genius vs genie
A genie is a magical spirit in folktales who grants wishes. It sounds similar but has nothing to do with intelligence.
Practice
Choose the best word to complete: Using a magnet to find the lost key was a real stroke of ___.
Choose one answer.
A stroke of genius is a fixed phrase meaning a brilliant idea. Genie, general and genre look similar but cannot follow stroke of.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “genius”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.