English

Noun

mastermind ‎(plural masterminds)

1. A person with an extraordinary intellect or skill that is markedly superior to his or her peers.
   • 1840, Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Colloquy of Monos and Una’:

     At long intervals some master-minds appeared, looking upon each advance in practical science as a retro-gradation in the true utility.

   • 2003, Steve Kemper, chapter 2, in Code Name Ginger: the Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen's Quest to Invent a New World, ISBN 1578516730, page 34:

     His first outside hire wasn't an electronics whiz or a mechanical mastermind, but a young industrial designer, a creature hitherto unknown at DEKA.

2. A person responsible for the highest level of planning and execution of a major operation.
   • 2007, Mark S. Hamm, chapter 6, in Terrorism as Crime: from Oklahoma City to Al-Qaeda and Beyond, ISBN 0814736963, page 196:

     The first was with none other than Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM), mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

Translations

Verb

mastermind ‎(third-person singular simple present masterminds, present participle masterminding, simple past and past participle masterminded)

1. To act in the role of mastermind.
   • 2007, Kevin Danaher et al., Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots, ISBN 0977825361, page 136:

     It would later be revealed that the corporation contributed over a quarter of a million dollars to the effort—a whopping 93 percent of the total coffer—and hired a team of media and political experts to mastermind it.

Translations

Anagrams

• mindstream