"brainiac" meaning in English

See brainiac in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈbɹeɪniæk/ Audio: En-au-brainiac.ogg Forms: brainiacs [plural]
Rhymes: -eɪniæk Etymology: Blend of brain + maniac, with influence from ENIAC, the name of an early computer. The term was coined as the name of the fictional supervillain Brainiac in the Superman series and first appeared in Action Comics comic book #242 in July, 1958. By surface analysis, brainy + -ac. Etymology templates: {{blend|en|brain|maniac}} Blend of brain + maniac, {{surf|en|brainy|-ac}} By surface analysis, brainy + -ac Head templates: {{en-noun}} brainiac (plural brainiacs)
  1. (slang, sometimes derogatory) A very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person. Tags: derogatory, slang, sometimes Synonyms: genius, pedant, smart-ass, wiseguy Translations (a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person): մոզգ (mozg) (Armenian), nero (Finnish), grosse tête [feminine] (French), Intelligenzbestie [feminine] (German), cervellone [masculine] (Italian), mózgowiec [masculine] (Polish), cerebrito [masculine] (Spanish), pitagorín [masculine] (Spanish), cerebrín [Spain, masculine] (Spanish), lumbrera [feminine] (Spanish), luminaria [feminine] (Spanish)

Inflected forms

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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
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  "etymology_text": "Blend of brain + maniac, with influence from ENIAC, the name of an early computer. The term was coined as the name of the fictional supervillain Brainiac in the Superman series and first appeared in Action Comics comic book #242 in July, 1958. By surface analysis, brainy + -ac.",
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  "pos": "noun",
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          "word": "dufus"
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          "word": "dumb-ass"
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          "word": "dumbo"
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          "ref": "2019 February 8, Margaret Wertheim, “Minds that explore the beauty of math and the logic of art”, in Washington Post, →ISSN:",
          "text": "With nearly 900,000 Twitter followers, Popova is a member of a rare pantheon of “influencers” for the brainiac crowd. Miraculously, she makes a living writing a blog about science, literature, philosophy, feminism and whatever else takes her voracious and generous fancy.",
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        "(slang, sometimes derogatory) A very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person."
      ],
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        {
          "word": "genius"
        },
        {
          "word": "pedant"
        },
        {
          "word": "smart-ass"
        },
        {
          "word": "wiseguy"
        }
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        "slang",
        "sometimes"
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          "code": "hy",
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          "lang_code": "hy",
          "roman": "mozg",
          "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
          "word": "մոզգ"
        },
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          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
          "word": "nero"
        },
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          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "grosse tête"
        },
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          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Intelligenzbestie"
        },
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          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "lang_code": "it",
          "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "cervellone"
        },
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          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
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        },
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          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
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            "masculine"
          ],
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          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
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            "masculine"
          ],
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        },
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          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
          "tags": [
            "Spain",
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "cerebrín"
        },
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          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "lumbrera"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "luminaria"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/ˈbɹeɪniæk/"
    },
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      "audio": "En-au-brainiac.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ac/En-au-brainiac.ogg/En-au-brainiac.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/En-au-brainiac.ogg"
    },
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      "rhymes": "-eɪniæk"
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  "word": "brainiac"
}
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      ],
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          "studious"
        ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, sometimes derogatory) A very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person."
      ],
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        {
          "word": "genius"
        },
        {
          "word": "pedant"
        },
        {
          "word": "smart-ass"
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        {
          "word": "wiseguy"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
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        "slang",
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      "ipa": "/ˈbɹeɪniæk/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-brainiac.ogg",
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    },
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "hy",
      "lang": "Armenian",
      "lang_code": "hy",
      "roman": "mozg",
      "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
      "word": "մոզգ"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
      "word": "nero"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "grosse tête"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Intelligenzbestie"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "lang_code": "it",
      "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "cervellone"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "mózgowiec"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "cerebrito"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pitagorín"
    },
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      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
      "tags": [
        "Spain",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "cerebrín"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "lumbrera"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "luminaria"
    }
  ],
  "word": "brainiac"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-02-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.