How to Use intelligent in a Sentence

intelligent

adjective
  • He's a hard worker but he's not very intelligent.
  • She asked some intelligent questions.
  • That is a book about the caracara, which is a very intelligent bird.
    — Amy Sutherland, BostonGlobe.com, 8 June 2023
  • Some of it is very intelligent too.
    — Jason Mastrodonato, Mercury News, 5 Sep. 2025
  • The intelligent man on the street is going to say that’s a bunch of baloney.
    — Robert Barnes, Washington Post, 22 Oct. 2017
  • And the intelligent man on the street is going to say that’s a bunch of baloney.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 3 Oct. 2017
  • The intelligent form of risk-taking can add joy to life.
    — Isabel Fattal, The Atlantic, 14 Mar. 2026
  • The Ruck twins lack size and pace, but both are very skilled and intelligent.
    — Corey Pronman, New York Times, 27 June 2026
  • And so, who would have thought that that leads to something that could be called intelligent?
    — IEEE Spectrum, 19 Apr. 2023
  • Then again, even intelligent aliens might be too busy or too shy to send messages to the stars.
    — Daniel Clery, Science | AAAS, 10 Sep. 2020
  • The poor, some experts say, are less intelligent than the rich.
    — New York Times, 5 Aug. 2021
  • People were very sweet, very open, and there’s a lot of film lovers there who are very intelligent.
    — Matt Wake | [email protected], al, 5 May 2020
  • People were very sweet, very open, and there’s a lot of film lovers there who are very intelligent.
    — Ben Flanagan | [email protected], al, 13 Sep. 2023
  • Books will be intelligent, music could be the blues.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Jan. 2026
  • She was thought of as being one of the most intelligent people of that time.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 27 June 2024
  • Nemec is an intelligent puck mover with good poise and vision with the puck.
    — Corey Pronman, New York Times, 23 June 2026
  • These jays are intelligent and are known to slip through treetops to rob nests of other birds.
    — Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 4 Mar. 2024
  • But intelligent systems don’t play by those rules.
    — Catherine Iger, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025
  • She was said to be intelligent and enjoyed books and learning.
    — Jane Smiley june 20, Literary Hub, 20 June 2025
  • Icy is intelligent, friendly and driven by the need for speed.
    — Linda McIntosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Nov. 2022
  • The question is, will she be replaced by an intelligent judge?
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 18 July 2024
  • So the only way to bridge the gap is to make energy more intelligent.
    — Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 27 Mar. 2026
  • There is fear of messing up, fear of not being seen as intelligent and fear of failure.
    — Kansas City Star, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The intelligent way to be selfish is to work for the welfare of others.
    — Chris Schembra, Rolling Stone, 5 Sep. 2024
  • Very skilled, high intelligent kid.
    — Matt Byrne, Arkansas Online, 2 Jan. 2026
  • These roles speak to the coming era of intelligent software.
    — Preston Fore, Fortune, 28 Sep. 2025
  • No proper, intelligent attempt was made to ‘live with’ the virus.
    — Daniel Tenreiro, National Review, 21 Sep. 2020
  • This number alone boosts the hope of finding intelligent life.
    — Meghan Bartels, Newsweek, 1 Mar. 2018
  • Crows are very intelligent, right?
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 25 May 2026
  • Why do some of the world’s most intelligent people sign on for a lifetime of pipetting?
    — Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'intelligent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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