brainy
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- brainily adverb
- braininess noun
Etymology
Origin of brainy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In 1978, the New Yorker called Keaton “one of the most comedically pure and brainy actresses in our midst.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 23, 2025
The former vice president’s steely resolve was captured years later in “Vice,” a 2018 biographical drama in which Christian Bale portrayed Cheney as a brainy yet uncompromisingly uncharismatic leader.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 4, 2025
Sir Stephen Fry lived up to his brainy reputation over breakfast, by predicting the chessboard was back: "I could be a knight - oh, I already am," he joked.
From BBC • Oct. 23, 2025
His bandmates were equally brainy: Mr. Gottlieb had a doctorate in musicology and Mr. Yarbrough once worked as a bouncer to pay for Greek lessons.
From New York Times • May 12, 2024
“Visit sick people, stuff like that. I would’ve been good at it, too. Not the brainy part—not sermons and all that—but I’d be okay with the people part.”
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
