intelligence

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge.
2. n. The faculty of thought and reason.
3. n. Superior powers of mind. See Synonyms at mind.
4. n. An intelligent, incorporeal being, especially an angel.
5. n. Information; news. See Synonyms at news.
6. n. Secret information, especially about an actual or potential enemy.
7. n. An agency, staff, or office employed in gathering such information.
8. n. Espionage agents, organizations, and activities considered as a group: "Intelligence is nothing if not an institutionalized black market in perishable commodities” ( John le Carré).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The quality of being intelligent; understanding; intellect; power of cognition.
2. n. Cultivated understanding; acquired knowledge; information stored up in the mind.
3. n. Exercise of superior understanding; address; skill: as, he performed his mission with much intelligence.
4. n. Mutual understanding; interchange of information or sentiment; intelligent intercourse; as, a glance of intelligence passed between them; to have intelligence with the enemy.
5. n. Information received or imparted; communicated knowledge; news: as, intelligence of a shipwreck.
6. n. An intelligent being; intellectual existence; concrete understanding: as, God is the Supreme Intelligence.
7. n. Advice, Tidings, etc. (see news), notification.
8. To convey intelligence; tell tales; tattle.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable Capacity of mind, especially to understand principles, truths, facts or meanings, acquire knowledge, and apply it to practice; the ability to learn and comprehend.
2. n. countable An entity that has such capacities.
3. n. uncountable Information, usually secret, about the enemy or about hostile activities.
4. n. countable A political or military department, agency or unit designed to gather information, usually secret, about the enemy or about hostile activities.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act or state of knowing; the exercise of the understanding.
2. n. The capacity to know or understand; readiness of comprehension; the intellect, as a gift or an endowment.
3. n. Information communicated; news; notice; advice.
4. n. obsolete Acquaintance; intercourse; familiarity.
5. n. (Mil.) Knowledge imparted or acquired, whether by study, research, or experience; general information. Information about an enemy or potential enemy, his capacities, and intentions.
6. n. An intelligent being or spirit; -- generally applied to pure spirits.
7. n. (Mil.) The division within a military organization that gathers and evaluates information about an enemy.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. secret information about an enemy (or potential enemy)
2. n. the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience
3. n. a unit responsible for gathering and interpreting information about an enemy
4. n. information about recent and important events
5. n. the operation of gathering information about an enemy