Phrase guide

intelligent design

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

The belief that biological life on Earth, or more broadly, the universe as a whole, was created by an intelligent agent (specified or unspecified) rather than being the result of undirected natural processes.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: ID, IDism, intelligent designism, neo-creationism

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Became a standard and widely promoted term in the 1987 draft of Of Pandas and People by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon, as a repackaging of creationism after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against its teaching in Edwards v. Aguillard (1987).

Across languages

Translations

31 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: التَصْمِيم الذَكِيّ (at-taṣmīm aḏ-ḏakiyy) — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Catalan: disseny intel·ligent — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Chinese Mandarin: 智能設計 /智能设计 (zhìnéng shèjì) — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Chinese Mandarin: 智慧設計 /智慧设计 (zhìhuì shèjì) — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Czech: inteligentní plán — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Danish: intelligent design — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Dutch: intelligent design — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Esperanto: inteligenta dezajno — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Finnish: älykäs suunnittelu — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • French: dessein intelligent — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Georgian: გონიერი ქმნილება (gonieri kmnileba) — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • German: Intelligent Design — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Hebrew: תכנון תבוני — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Hungarian: intelligens tervezés — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Indonesian: intelligent design — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Italian: disegno intelligente — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Japanese: インテリジェント・デザイン (interijento dezain) — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Japanese: 知能設計 (chinō-sekkei) — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Korean: 지적 설계 (jijeok seolgye) — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Latvian: apzināta radīšana — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Norwegian: intelligent design — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Polish: teoria inteligentnego projektu — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Portuguese: design inteligente — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Romanian: design inteligent — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Russian: разу́мный за́мысел (razúmnyj zámysel) — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Serbo-Croatian: inteligentni dizajn — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Spanish: diseño inteligente — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Swedish: intelligent design — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Tagalog: matalinong disenyo — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Turkish: akıllı tasarım — intelligent design / Intelligent Design
  • Yiddish: אינטעליזשענט דעזיין (intelizhent dezayn) — intelligent design / Intelligent Design