| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | ability to perceive, understand |
| Synonyms: | IQ, acuity, acumen, agility, alertness, aptitude, brainpower, brains, brightness, brilliance, capacity, cleverness, comprehension, coruscation, discernment, gray matter, intellect, judgment, luminosity, mentality, mind, penetration, perception, perspicacity, precocity, quickness, quotient, reason, sagacity, savvy, sense, skill, smarts, subtlety, the right stuff, trenchancy, understanding, what it takes, wit |
| Antonyms: | ignorance, inability, ineptness |
| Main Entry: | ability |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | power to act, perform |
| Synonyms: | aptitude, capability, capacity, competence, competency, comprehension, dexterity, endowment, facility, faculty, intelligence, might, potentiality, qualification, resourcefulness, skill, strength, talent, understanding |
| Notes: | applied to a person, ability and capacity mean about the same thing but are grammatically different: an ability to do something, a capacity for doing something; ability is qualitative while capacity is quantitative |
| Antonyms: | impotence, inability, limitation, paralysis |
| Main Entry: | acumen |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | ability to understand and reason |
| Synonyms: | acuity, acuteness, astuteness, awareness, brains, brilliance, cleverness, comprehension, cunning, discernment, discrimination, farsightedness, good taste, grasp, guile, ingenuity, insight, intellect, intelligence, intuition, judgment, keenness, perception, percipience, perspicacity, perspicuity, refinement, sagacity, sensitivity, sharpness, shrewdness, smartness, smarts, understanding, vision, wisdom, wit |
| Antonyms: | denseness, ignorance, inability, ineptness, obtuseness, stupidity |
| Main Entry: | apprehension |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | understanding |
| Synonyms: | awareness, comprehension, grasp, idea, intellect, intelligence, judgment, ken, knowledge, notion, perception, perspicacity, thought |
| Antonyms: | imperception, misunderstanding |
| Main Entry: | aptitude |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | quickness at learning |
| Synonyms: | ability, capability, capacity, cleverness, competence, faculty, flair, gift, giftedness, intelligence, knack, proficiency, savvy, smarts, stuff*, talent, what it takes |
| Antonyms: | incapacity, stupidity |
| Main Entry: | capacity |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | ability; competency |
| Synonyms: | adequacy, aptitude, aptness, bent, brains, caliber, capability, cleverness, compass, competence, efficiency, facility, faculty, forte, genius, gift, inclination, intelligence, knack, might, power, qualification, readiness, skill, stature, strength, talent, the goods, up to it, what it takes |
| Antonyms: | impotence, inability, incompetence |
| Main Entry: | character |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | integrity |
| Synonyms: | courage, fame, honor, intelligence, mind, name, place, position, rank, rectitude, rep, report, reputation, repute, standing, station, status, uprightness |
| Main Entry: | cleverness |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | brightness, ingenuity |
| Synonyms: | ability, adroitness, astuteness, brains, calculation, canniness, dexterity, discernment, flair, gift, gumption, intelligence, quick wit, quickness, resourcefulness, sagacity, sense, sharpness, shrewdness, skill, smartness, talent, wisdom, wit |
| Antonyms: | foolishness, ignorance, naievety, senselessness, stupidity |
| Main Entry: | cognizance/cognition |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | understanding |
| Synonyms: | acknowledgment, apprehension, attention, awareness, comprehension, discernment, insight, intelligence, knowledge, mind, need, note, notice, observance, observation, perception, percipience, reasoning, recognition, regard |
| Antonyms: | ignorance, misunderstanding |