ANTI-INTELLECTUAL Synonyms: 44 Similar and Opposite Words

anti-intellectual 1 of 2

adjective

Definition of anti-intellectual

as in nonintellectual

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anti-intellectual

2 of 2

noun

as in philistine

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Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of anti-intellectual

Adjective

This notion when applied to classrooms, teachers, and students is anti-educational and anti-intellectual. — Chicago Tribune, 7 June 2026 Trump proved to be a vexing ideological lodestar—aggressively anti-intellectual in his attitudes and consistently inconsistent in his views. — Jason Zengerle, New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2026 Its popularity is improbable by virtue of its unapologetic intellectualism, increasingly alien in a highly anti-intellectual era. — Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 15 Jan. 2026 In the year 2505, protagonist Joe Bauers wakes up from hibernation to discover an America dominated by corporations and led by profoundly anti-science and anti-intellectual politicians. — Literary Hub, 7 Jan. 2026 If that — and a title font that echoes Woody Allen’s go-to choice of white Windsor Light Condensed over a black background — sets anti-intellectual alarm bells ringing, then this might not be the film for you. — Damon Wise, Deadline, 29 Aug. 2025 Conservative faculty are almost impossible to find at Harvard, and that absence has created a warped, often anti-intellectual, climate on campus. — Samuel J. Abrams, National Review, 19 July 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for anti-intellectual

Adjective

Such thumbnail indictments of the nonintellectual masses seemed to stem from Hofstadter’s own mounting sense of political and cultural homelessness in the postwar world.

— Chris Lehmann, The New Republic, 16 Apr. 2020
George, meanwhile, grew up in a cheerfully nonintellectual and inclusive household that celebrated Christmas and just about anything involving their son, even Lizzie.

— Ellen Emry Heltzel, The Seattle Times, 3 Sep. 2017

Definition of nonintellectual

Noun

Embracing a visual vocabulary of the lowbrow and the rudimentary is a tried-and-true method of rebelling against a culture that feels vapid or corporatized.

— Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 6 May 2026
Executives at NBCUniversal frame Bravo as a brand that represents a particular type of lowbrow-highbrow reality TV, and that even if the channel vanished, the brand could live on.

— Alex Weprin, HollywoodReporter, 9 Jan. 2026

Definition of lowbrow

Adjective

Ira, in my very uneducated opinion, there are eight teams in the East that could finish first, and any of those eight could be eighth.

— Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 24 Sep. 2026
As a peripheral community grows around them, this lawless terrain is suddenly subject to boundaries and contracts and taxes; both uneducated and illiterate, Isak and Inger are ill prepared for such societal evolution.

— Guy Lodge, Variety, 16 Sep. 2026

Definition of uneducated

Adjective

Also, the incorrect assumption among those who either are ignorant of the real economic realities or just don’t care and just want to pander to their own districts.

— Dominic Patten, Deadline, 30 Sep. 2026
The old worst dressed lists could be cruel, sexist, culturally ignorant, and spectacularly misguided.

— Derek C. Blasberg, Vanity Fair, 27 Aug. 2026

Definition of ignorant

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“Anti-intellectual.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/anti-intellectual. Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of anti-intellectual

adjective

noun

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