subintellectual

comparative more subintellectual · superlative most subintellectual

1. Below the level of the intellect.

   Even if, later on, she was able to examine and analyze certain aspects of popular culture (as in “Notes on Camp,” 1964), she could undertake such a thing only in service to a higher goal — she was immune to subintellectual cultural pleasures.

   2009 February 1, Luc Sante, “Sontag: The Precocious Years”, in New York Times

plural subintellectuals

1. A person who is less intelligent than an intellectual.