Intelligence \In*tel"li*gence\, n. [F. intelligence, L.
   intelligentia, intellegentia. See Intelligent.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. The act or state of knowing; the exercise of the
      understanding.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The capacity to know or understand; readiness of
      comprehension; the intellect, as a gift or an endowment.
      [1913 Webster]

            And dimmed with darkness their intelligence.
                                                  --Spenser.
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   3. Information communicated; news; notice; advice.
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            Intelligence is given where you are hid. --Shak.
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   4. Acquaintance; intercourse; familiarity. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            He lived rather in a fair intelligence than any
            friendship with the favorites.        --Clarendon.
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   5. Knowledge imparted or acquired, whether by study,
      research, or experience; general information.
      Specifically; (Mil.) Information about an enemy or
      potential enemy, his capacities, and intentions.
      [1913 Webster]

            I write as he that none intelligence
            Of meters hath, ne flowers of sentence. --Court of
                                                  Love.
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   6. An intelligent being or spirit; -- generally applied to
      pure spirits; as, a created intelligence. --Milton.
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            The great Intelligences fair
            That range above our mortal state,
            In circle round the blessed gate,
            Received and gave him welcome there.  --Tennyson.
      [1913 Webster]

   7. (Mil.) The division within a military organization that
      gathers and evaluates information about an enemy.
      [PJC]

   Intelligence office, an office where information may be
      obtained, particularly respecting servants to be hired.

   Syn: Understanding; intellect; instruction; advice; notice;
        notification; news; information; report.
        [1913 Webster]

	

	intelligence
     n 1: the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from
          experience [ant: stupidity]
     2: a unit responsible for gathering and interpreting
        information about an enemy [syn: intelligence service, intelligence
        agency]
     3: secret information about an enemy (or potential enemy); "we
        sent out planes to gather intelligence on their radar
        coverage" [syn: intelligence information]
     4: new information about specific and timely events; "they
        awaited news of the outcome" [syn: news, tidings, word]
     5: the operation of gathering information about an enemy [syn:
        intelligence activity, intelligence operation]

	

	209 Moby Thesaurus words for "intelligence":
   Vernunft, account, acquaintance, acumen, advice, alertness,
   announcement, apprehension, aptitude, aptness, astuteness, atua,
   blue book, brain, brains, briefing, brightness,
   broadcast journalism, bugging, bulletin, capacity, clairvoyance,
   cleverness, cloak-and-dagger work, command, common sense,
   communication, communique, comprehension, conception,
   conceptualization, consciousness, corpus, counterespionage,
   counterintelligence, daemon, data, datum, demon, directory,
   discernment, discourse of reason, discretion, discursive reason,
   dispatch, docility, dope, educability, electronic surveillance,
   enlightenment, espial, espionage, esprit, evidence, evil spirits,
   experience, expertise, facility, facts, factual base,
   factual information, familiarity, familiarization, findings,
   following, foreknowledge, gen, general information, genius, grasp,
   gray matter, grip, guidebook, handout, hard information, head,
   headpiece, ideation, impressionability, incidental information,
   info, information, inside, insight, instruction, intellect,
   intellection, intellectual, intellectual faculty,
   intelligence bureau, intelligence service, intelligence work,
   intimacy, journalism, judgment, keenness, ken, know-how, knowing,
   knowledge, light, low-down, malleability, mastery, mens,
   mental capacity, mental grasp, mentality, mention, message,
   military intelligence, mind, moldability, mother wit, motivation,
   naval intelligence, news, news agency, news medium, news service,
   newsiness, newsletter, newsmagazine, newspaper, newsworthiness,
   notice, notification, nous, observation, perception, percipience,
   perspicaciousness, perspicacity, plasticity, pliability, poop,
   power of reason, practical knowledge, precognition, prehension,
   presentation, press association, private knowledge, privity,
   promotional material, proof, psyche, publication, publicity,
   quickness, radio, ratio, ratio cognoscendi, rationality, readiness,
   reason, reasoning, reasoning faculty, receptivity, release, report,
   reportage, sagacity, savvy, secret police, secret service,
   self-knowledge, sense, shadowing, shrewdness, sidelight, smarts,
   specter, spirit, spying, stakeout, statement, supernatural being,
   surveillance, susceptibility, tailing, teachability, teachableness,
   technic, technics, technique, telegraph agency, television,
   the dope, the fourth estate, the goods, the know, the press,
   the scoop, tidings, trailing, trainableness, transmission,
   understanding, white book, white paper, willingness, wire service,
   wiretap, wiretapping, wisdom, wise man, wit, word