How to spell intelligence

hear itin·tel·li·gence/ɪn'tɛlɪdʒəns/nounSchwa and roots

What it means: The ability to think, learn, and solve problems.

In a sentence: The octopus used its intelligence to solve the tricky puzzle.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double l, and an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as inteligence or intellgence.

Same family: intelligent, intelligently, intelligencer, military-intelligence, intelligence-gathering. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Intelligence” comes from Latin ‘intelligentia,’ from ‘intellegere’ meaning ‘to understand’ or ‘to discern.’ Over time, its meaning expanded from ‘understanding’ to also include ‘secret information gathered about an enemy,’ especially in military and political contexts.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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Words like this

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