The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find ;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas ;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.
Does straight its own resemblance find ;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas ;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.
— Andrew Marvell, "The Garden"
Exactly What It Says on the Tin; this is an index of tropes pertaining to intelligence and intellectuals.
Contrast with Anti-Intellectualism and Stupidity Tropes. See also Gambit Index, Indexed and Nerdy, and Logic Tropes. If you are looking for tropes related to "intelligence" in a military context, see Espionage Tropes. Tropes that deal with broad-based knowledge may fall under Tropes of Wisdom instead, although there is considerable overlap since expansive knowledge is often used as a way to demonstrate intelligence.
Tropes:
- Absent-Minded Professor: An intelligent person who tends to be oblivious of their surroundings.
- Academic Alpha Bitch: The head of the cheerleader team is skilled in academia.
- Academic Athlete: The jock is skilled in academia.
- Acting Your Intellectual Age: Intelligent children behave a lot like adults.
- Adaptational Intelligence: A character who wasn't smart in previous source material is given greater intelligence in the adaptation.
- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome
- Amplified Animal Aptitude
- Artificial Brilliance
- Badass Bookworm: Geeks can kick ass.
- Book Dumb: Incompetent when it comes to academics, but skilled in street-smarts.
- Brain Chain
- Brain Critical Mass
- Brains and Bondage
- Brainy Baby: A very intelligent infant.
- Brainy Brunette: A brunette character shows signs of intelligence.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: A character who's smarter than they let on, but is too caught up in more trivial topic areas to apply their knowledge.
- Calculus Is Arcane Knowledge
- Celibate Eccentric Genius
- The Chessmaster
- Child Prodigy
- Clever Crows
- Crossword Puzzle: A puzzle where one has to utilize their pop culture knowledge.
- Cunning Like a Fox
- Cute Bookworm
- Deadpan Snarker: Responding to nonsense with sarcasm.
- Ditzy Genius: An intellect who nonetheless has areas in which they are inarticulate.
- Dumbass No More: A dumb character becomes smarter over time.
- Encyclopaedic Knowledge
- The Engineer
- Eureka Moment
- Evil Genius: A villainous prodigy.
- Feigning Intelligence: A character pretends to be smart.
- Gadgeteer Genius: A prodigy who has created many scientific gadgets.
- Game of Nerds
- Genius Book Club
- Genius Bruiser: Who said geniuses can't kick ass?
- Genius Cripple: A handicapped genius.
- Genius Ditz: A dumbass has one expertise in which no one can beat them.
- Genius Slob: Genius is unhygienic and lazy.
- Genius Sweet Tooth: A genius has an especial craving for sweets.
- Gentleman and a Scholar
- Gibbering Genius
- Good with Numbers: Mathematic proficiency.
- Guile Hero: The hero relies on their wits to save the day.
- Hopeless with Tech
- Hot Librarian: An attractive librarian, an occupation associated with books.
- Hot Teacher: The educator is sexy and attractive.
- Hot Scientist: Attractive scientist.
- Idiot Savant: An idiot has a savvy knowledge in one particular topic area.
- Impossible Genius
- Improbably High I.Q.
- Ingesting Knowledge
- Instant Cultured
- Insufferable Genius: A character who smugly looks down upon those with a lower IQ.
- Intelligence = Isolation: Intelligent people are loners with no friends.
- Intelligent Gerbil
- Inventor of the Mundane
- It Can Think
- "Jeopardy!" Intelligence Test
- Little Professor Dialog: A little kid with sophisticated vocabulary.
- Manipulative Bastard: A character who is a genius at manipulating people.
- Motherly Scientist: A scientist who views their creations as being their children.
- Mouthful of Pi
- Minored in Ass-Kicking
- Mr. Fixit: A handyman/mechanic.
- My Brain Is Big: A character has a huge head to indicate their intelligence.
- Nerves of Steel
- Nobody's That Dumb: A dumb character turns out to be aware of their lack of intelligence and states that even they have limits to how stupid they can be.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: An intelligent character fakes an idiotic ego to fool others.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: A scientist who is knowledgeable in every field of science that the plot requires.
- The Omniscient
- Only Smart People May Pass
- One-Man Industrial Revolution
- Pair the Smart Ones: A couple consisting of two geniuses.
- Persecuted Intellectuals: Smart people are discriminated against.
- The Philosopher
- Prescience by Analysis
- The Professor
- The Proud Elite
- The Rain Man
- Renaissance Man
- Ranked by I.Q.
- Rich Genius: A person who becomes rich from their knowledge.
- Robot Master
- Rubik's Cube International Genius Symbol
- Sapient All Along
- Science Hero
- Science-Related Memetic Disorder
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Using advanced vocabulary to portray your high intellect.
- Sherlock Scan
- Shorter Means Smarter: Short-statured people are portrayed as smarter than those bigger than them.
- The Short Guy with Glasses: A short-statured male who wears glasses.
- Self-Made Superpowers
- Smart Ball: An idiot is given a notable level of intelligence in an episode or more.
- The Smart Guy: The intellect of the Five-Man Band.
- Smart People Build Robots: Geniuses create robots.
- Smart People Know Latin: Geniuses can speak good Latin.
- Smart People Play Chess: Geniuses play chess.
- Smart People Speak the Queen's English
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Glasses are worn by a character to highlight their intelligence.
- Sneaky Spider: Spiders are often intellectual schemers and/or witty tricksters.
- The Social Expert
- Southern-Fried Genius: An intelligent person with a Southern accent.
- The Spock
- Steampunk Gadgeteers
- The Strategist
- Street Smart: Someone who isn't fooled by the many dupes they encounter on the street.
- Sudden Intelligence: A character is abruptly given an IQ boost.
- Super Intelligence
- Techno Wizard
- Teen Genius: Teenagers who are intelligent.
- They Just Don't Get It
- Think Twins
- This Ain't Rocket Surgery
- TV Genius
- Viewers Are Geniuses
- Weekend Inventor
- World's Smartest Man
