intelligentsia Hear it!

intelligentsia Definition

in·tel·li·gentsia (in telə jentsē ə; esp. formerly, -gent-)

the people regarded as, or regarding themselves as, the educated and enlightened class; intellectuals collectively

Etymology: Russ intelligentsiya < L intelligentia: see intelligence

intelligentsia Synonyms

intelligentsia

pl.n.

the learned, intellectuals, literati, eggheads*; see intellectual.

intelligentsia Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • alienate: This will further alienate the liberal intelligentsia which has never been very enthusiastically Blairite.
  • attract: However, although the Arab stage attracted the Arab intelligentsia, it did not achieve a breakthrough.
  • create: That means creating a new technical intelligentsia capable of satisfying the needs of our industry.
  • work: Our language at the time went like this: Peasants, workers and you, the working intelligentsia!

Adjective modifier

  • bourgeois: What attitude should the working class take toward the capitalist class and the bourgeois intelligentsia?
  • liberal: Peter Hitchens describes how the liberal intelligentsia has taken over; you are living under New Labor.
  • Russian: The newspaper which serves a section of the Russian oppositional intelligentsia gave you a forum.
  • revolutionary: Her example was imitated in the circles of the revolutionary intelligentsia, who lacked any mass support.
  • socialist: A primitive Socialist intelligentsia is all that is needed.
  • radical: Brownâs difficulty, as he acknowledges, is that Britainâs radical intelligentsia has never cared for patriotism.

Modifies a noun

  • approval: This is the BBC's cultural channel which is stamped with the kudos of intelligentsia approval.
  • today: He does not, however, depart from the stock understanding of the two writers held by the intelligentsia today.

Noun used with modifier

  • class: In Third World nationalism it is the middle class intelligentsia oppressed by imperialism.
  • petty-bourgeois: The urban workers fought and died, together with revolutionary enthusiasts from the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia.
  • toiling: This was an attempt to replace the educated class of the past by what Rakosi called a new " toiling intelligentsia " .