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]

Intelligence \In*tel"li*gence\, n. [F. intelligence, L. intelligentia, intellegentia. See Intelligent.]
1. The act or state of knowing; the exercise of the understanding.
2. The capacity to know or understand; readiness of comprehension; the intellect, as a gift or an endowment. And dimmed with darkness their intelligence. --Spenser.
3. Information communicated; news; notice; advice. Intelligence is given where you are hid. --Shak.
4. Acquaintance; intercourse; familiarity. [Obs.] He lived rather in a fair intelligence than any friendship with the favorites. --Clarendon.
5. Knowledge imparted or acquired, whether by study, research, or experience; general information. I write as he that none intelligence Of meters hath, ne flowers of sentence. --Court of Love.
6. An intelligent being or spirit; -- generally applied to pure spirits; as, a created intelligence. --Milton. The great Intelligences fair That range above our mortal state, In circle round the blessed gate, Received and gave him welcome there. --Tennyson. 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.

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Intelligence is an umbrella term describing a property of the mind including related abilities, such as the capacities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, learning from past experiences, planning, and problem solving.

Intelligence is most widely studied in humans, but is also observed in animals and plants. Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines or the simulation of intelligence in machines.

Numerous definitions of and hypotheses about intelligence have been proposed since before the twentieth century, with no consensus yet reached by scholars. Within the discipline of psychology, various approaches to human intelligence have been adopted, with the psychometric approach being especially familiar to the general public. Influenced by his cousin Charles Darwin, Francis Galton was the first scientist to propose a theory of general intelligence; that intelligence is a true, biologically-based mental faculty that can be studied by measuring a person's reaction times to cognitive tasks. Galton's research in measuring the head sizes of British scientists and laymen led to the conclusion that head-size is unrelated to a person's intelligence.

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