Noun: genius
| Singular | genius |
| Plural | geniuses; genii |
Sample Sentences
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She's a genius; she won a Nobel Prize at fifteen!
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Marx stand höher, sah weiter, überblickte mehr und rascher als wir andern alle. Marx war ein Genie, wir andern höchstens Talente. [1962 [1888, 1886], Friedrich Engels, chapter IV, in Ludwig Feuerbach und der Ausgang der klassischen deutschen Philosophie (Marx-Engels-Werke; 21), page 292; English translation from Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy (Marx/Engels Collected Works; 26), translation of original in German, 1990, page 382:]
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Excuse, therefore, the shortcomings of genius under the sudorific influence of the summer solstice; for be assured that the vertical sun, however it may dulcify and mature cherries, plums, and other fruitful ‘plumpitudes,’ is by no means favorable to the development of intellectual products. [1853, Whirligig, quotee, edited by William Kidd, Kidd’s Own Journal; for Inter-Communications on Natural History, Popular Science, and Things in General, volume IV, number 8, London: William Spooner, […]; Richard Groombridge and Sons, […], page 124, column 2:]
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In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. [1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:]
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a work of genius
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to add a dash of cinnamon amid such umami was pure genius
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and the genius of the place: the growing enthusiasm for codified standards in the Army and Navy
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[1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “the unseen genius of the wood”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC:]
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We talk of genius still, but with thought how changed! The genius of Augustus was a tutelary demon, to be sworn by and to receive offerings on an altar as a deity. [1715, Edward Burnett Tylor, Primitive Culture:]
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An old sinner, in shape of a khansamah, is the genius of the place, and has rarely aught else to tempt the tired traveller with than a “sudden death”—a fowl caught running in the yard, and dished up forthwith; […] [1866, Frederick F. Wyman, From Calcutta to the Snowy Range, page 330:]
Nouns inflected like genius
deinonychus,
shamus,
pearly nautilus,
splenic plexus,
paper nautilus,
boletus,
sight radius,
subfocus,
pandanus,
pegasus,
zoilus,
Bohr radius,
black fungus,
ranunculus,
prodromus,
periannulus,
organ pipe cactus,
pluteus,
star cactus,
periplous, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Latin genius (“inborn nature; a tutelary deity of a person or place; wit, brilliance”), from gignō (“to beget, produce”), Old Latin genō, from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵenh₁-. Doublet of genio. See also genus and genie. See: Latin Nouns '
genius'.