nonintellectual

7.2

Not needing much thinking or serious ideas

adjective
/ˌnɒnˌɪn.təˈlɛk.tʃu.əl/

: no intelectual

The job involved long hours of nonintellectual tasks that required minimal mental effort.

Examples

Research might help determine how much of global awareness involves the intellect and how much involves nonintellectual matters.

Academic text (2008)
But if we take seriously the lessons available from the TCK community, we should also conduct research on nonacademic, nonintellectual elements of global awareness.

Academic text (2008)
Only the intellectual aspects of the human bear God's image; however, the nonintellectual aspects of the physical body retain only a likeness of God's goodness by its existence.

Academic text (2005)
They do that great bit where they all pretend to be pseudo-intellectuals who can't recognize a distinction between anti-intellectual and nonintellectual.

Blog text (9)
It was work—simple, repetitive, nonintellectual—and I lost myself in it.

Fiction book (2000)
He preferred engaging in nonintellectual activities like watching movies rather than studying.
Her nonintellectual approach to problem-solving sometimes yielded surprising results.

Synonyms

simple

vsnonintellectual

Offensive

138 8.1

Not smart or quick to understand

applies to not involving thinking rather than to plain or basic quality

inane

vsnonintellectual

28 7.5

Very silly and having no real meaning

focuses on absence of thinking involvement rather than silly or pointless nature

unintelligent

vsnonintellectual

8 3.3

Not smart or slow to understand

refers instead to things not involving thinking or mental effort

noncognitive

vsnonintellectual

Specialized

1 7.1

Personal skills like teamwork, motivation, and self-control that do not involve thinking

applies more generally to things lacking mental qualities rather than just skills

unintellectual

vsnonintellectual

1 7.2

Not showing serious thought or interest in ideas

is about absence of relation to thinking or mental effort rather than attitude

Antonyms

intellectual

380 5.5

About thinking, ideas, and mental effort rather than feelings

How Intellectual

scholarly

Formal

47 5.6

intellectual

380 5.5

thoughtful

19 3.2

practical

507 2.6

nonintellectual

7.2

unthinking

4 4.9

Surface Forms

nonintellectual positive

Morphology

nonintellectual = intellectual (transparent) = non + intellect + ual

Formed by adding the negative prefix 'non-' to the familiar adjective 'intellectual', giving the straightforward meaning 'not intellectual'.

Etymology

Nonintellectual starts with non- meaning 'not' and the rest comes from intellect, the same root you see in intelligent, which means 'understanding' or 'thinking'. So nonintellectual means 'not about thinking or ideas', used for things that focus more on action or feeling than on deep thought.