Genius

Originally genius is a term from Roman mythology, see: genius (mythology). The modern meaning of the word is different; see below.

In general usage, a genius is either a polymath or a person gifted with particular talents, mainly regarding intelligence. Most people think of intellectual geniuses but there are social geniuses (for example Oscar Wilde) and athletic geniuses.

Among persons widely called geniuses are:

• Archimedes (mathematician)
• Johann Sebastian Bach (composer)
• Rene Descartes (mathematician)
• Thomas Alva Edison (inventor)
• Albert Einstein (theoretical physicist)
• Paul Erdös (mathematician)
• Richard P. Feynman (physicist)
• Evariste Galois (mathematician)
• Carl Friedrich Gauss (mathematician)
• Stephen Hawking (cosmologist)
• Murray Gell-Mann (physicist)
• James Joyce (writer)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (composer)
• Isaac Newton (physicist)
• Blaise Pascal (mathematician)
• Ramanujan (mathematician)
• William Shakespeare (writer)
• Nikola Tesla (electrical engineer and physicist)
• Alan Turing (mathematician)
• Leonardo da Vinci (inventor)
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (writer)