People and roles
Synonyms for genius
Synonyms for genius: wonder and flair. Every one of them is a hand audited pair from the Synonym Stack word bank, shown below in the sense it fits, in a real sentence, and beside the words that only look close.
The 2 synonyms for genius
- wondernoun, in the sense "someone who has exceptional intellectual ability and originality"
- flairnoun, in the sense "a natural talent"
Two senses of genius, two audited synonyms, one for each. The bank does not stack alternatives under a sense it has not separated.
someone who has exceptional intellectual ability and originality
Mozart was a child genius.
genius in 2 more sentences, same sense
- The new engineer turned out to be a genius, solving in an afternoon what had stumped the team for weeks.
- Everyone on the block agreed the old watchmaker was a genius, able to fix clocks no one else could repair.
How it behaves: Genius in this sense typically appears as a predicate noun after 'a', as in 'is a genius', and often takes 'for' or 'at' to name the domain of ability, in a fairly elevated register.
The true synonym
wonder
Same sentence, swapped: Mozart was a child wonder.
Close but different
The game shows these three beside the answer. Each is a real word with a real meaning and none of them fits the slot genius is in above, which is the point the reason line makes.
- champion
- flair
- mentor
Opposites, in this sense
dunce and simpleton reverse genius as it is used in the sentence above. A different sense of genius takes different opposites, which is why these sit inside the sense and not at the top of the page.
- dunce
- simpleton
a natural talent
He has a genius for interior decorating.
The true synonym
flair
Same sentence, swapped: He has a flair for interior decorating.
Close but different
These three are the other tiles the game puts on screen for this sense, and the note above says why the closest of them fails. None is a synonym for genius in the sentence quoted.
- champion
- brain
- hang
Where genius turns up in the game
genius is the word under test in two puzzles, spread across two difficulty tiers. It also sits on the board as one of the three wrong tiles in four other puzzles, where the answer is a different word entirely.
The puzzles where genius is the trap
- imaginationnoun, Tier 1, Foothills. The answer there is vision, in the sense "the formation of a mental image of something that is not perceived as real and is not present to the senses", so genius is there to be ruled out.
- grainnoun, Tier 2, Treeline. The answer there is texture, in the sense "the physical composition of something (especially with respect to the size and shape of the small constituents of a substance)", and genius is one of the three tiles that lose.
- brilliancenoun, Tier 3, Ridgeline. The answer there is grandeur, in the sense "the quality of being magnificent or splendid or grand", and genius is one of the three tiles that lose.
- deannoun, Tier 5, Summit. The answer there is doyen, in the sense "a man who is the senior member of a group", so genius is there to be ruled out.
Play genius
The bank on this page is the bank the game plays from, so genius reaches you as a board rather than a definition: the sentence first, four tiles, and the meaning after you choose.
Free with ads on iPhone. Synonym Stack Plus removes them: $2.99 a week, $5.99 a month or $49.99 a year, with a 7 day free trial on the monthly and annual plans.
Closest first: other people and roles words at Foothills, then the same tier across the rest of the library.
The wrong tile gets explained too
Synonym Stack plays from this exact bank. genius carries 2 written reason lines, and the game shows them the moment a round ends, whichever tile you tapped.