Meaning & use
intellectual growth
Last updated
Meanings
phraseuncountable
The development of a person's ability to think, understand, and reason, especially through learning and experience.
Grammar: Uncountable, so it has no plural and is not used with 'a' or 'an'.
Patterns
- intellectual growth in something
- promote intellectual growth
- intellectual growth through something
Reading widely is one of the best ways to encourage intellectual growth.
The school's aim is to support the intellectual growth of every student.
Travel can lead to real intellectual growth if you approach it with curiosity.
phraseuncountable
The process by which a society or field of study becomes more advanced in knowledge and ideas.
Grammar: Also uncountable; often used with 'economic' or 'cultural' to describe broad social development.
Patterns
- the intellectual growth of a society
- contribute to intellectual growth
The printing press contributed greatly to the intellectual growth of Europe.
Universities have long been centers of intellectual growth.
Common combinations
- promote intellectual growth
- Good teachers promote intellectual growth by asking challenging questions.
- intellectual growth through reading
- She credits her intellectual growth through reading as a child.
- personal intellectual growth
- He sees the course as a chance for personal intellectual growth.
- encourage intellectual growth
- The program is designed to encourage intellectual growth in young people.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mental development
- Focuses on the mind's overall development, including emotional and social aspects, not just thinking skills.
- cognitive development
- A more technical term used in psychology for changes in thinking and understanding over time.
- intellectual development
- Very close in meaning, but often used to describe a natural process rather than growth through effort.
Opposites
Word family
- intellectual adjective
- Relating to the ability to think and understand.
- intellectually adverb
- In a way that involves thinking and understanding.
- intellectualism noun
- The practice of treating thinking and knowledge as very important.
Commonly confused: intellectual growth or intelligent growth?
intellectual growth vs intelligent growth
Not a standard phrase; 'intelligent' describes a person or thing, not a process of development. Use 'intellectual growth' for the development of thinking.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses 'intellectual growth' correctly.
Choose one answer.
'Intellectual growth' is uncountable and refers to the development of thinking. Option 1 wrongly uses it with 'an' for profits. Option 2 treats it as a countable object. Option 3 uses it as a verb, which is not correct.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “intellectual growth”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.