Key Difference: Intelligence is the quality of being very smart and well-informed. Creativity is the ability to cause or to exist. It is a subjective value.

Both, intelligence and creativity are mental abilities. It is a long process to get detailed knowledge about these terms. But, the basic difference between the two is that intelligence is a general capacity or ability of an individual, whereas, creativity requires different thinking.

Intelligence is influenced by our own understanding of the concept. Intelligence is what one can improve by studies, reasoning, understanding and learning. It is most widely studied in humans, but it is also used for animals and plants. Plants, though they are not human being, they understand everything. Intelligence derived from the Latin word intelligere which means ‘to pick up’.

As a basic term, intelligence is a high capacity of learning or understanding a particular term. It can only be developed from childhood. No one is born intelligent, one needs to work on it and improve his skills.

Dictionary.com defines ‘Intelligence’ as:

• Capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc.
• Manifestation of a high mental capacity: He writes with intelligence and wit.
• The faculty of understanding.
• Knowledge of an event, circumstance, etc., received or imparted; news; information.
• The gathering or distribution of information, especially secret information.

You must have seen that a few kids in a large group are not that intelligent than others. They are not able to grasp things so easily. It is because they have not taken interest and have not tried to improve their knowledge. It is very hard to define intelligence because no one can measure intelligence.

There are different types of intelligence: Linguistic Intelligence, Logicomathmatical Intelligence, Spatial Intelligence, Music Intelligence, Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence, Interpersonal Intelligence, Naturalistic Intelligence, Business Intelligence, Sales Intelligence, Defense Intelligent and many more.

Some of the explanations of types of intelligence are given below:-

Linguistic Intelligence - Speak and write well.

Logiomathmatical Intelligence – Use logical skills, i.e., mathematical skills to prove or solve problems.

Music Intelligence – Perform, understand and enjoy music.

Business Intelligence – Corporate skills.

Interpersonal Intelligence – Interact with others effectively.

The examples below will easily make you understand about the term:

• Furthermore, crows may provide clues to understanding human intelligence.
• Military intelligence is not a contradiction in terms.
• They have intensity, intelligence, and a personality in sound.
• They live secret lives, surviving on stealth and intelligence.

On the other hand, creativity is a phenomenon where one tries to create something new or valuable. It is the ability to cause, to exist, or to create something of subjective value. In creativity, intelligence plays a very important role. One cannot create anything if he is not perceived to associate with intelligence. It is the process of producing something original and worthwhile.

Dictionary.com defines ‘Creativity’ as:

• The state or quality of being creative.
• The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination: the need for creativity in modern industry; creativity in the performing arts.
• The process by which one utilizes creative ability: Extensive reading stimulated his creativity.

According to J.P. Guilford, a renowned psychologist, “creativity involves divergent thinking with respect to the traits of fluency, flexibility and originality of thought process. It means that creativity involves the thinking process in various forms with the originality and flexibility in the thought process”.

Creativity is a daily thought which a person one day explores or produces. Intelligence certainly plays a part in creative thinking. So intelligence matters, it demonstrates your ability to gather knowledge and effectively use it. Creativity is the ability to go beyond the intelligence frame and capitalize on seemingly random connections of concepts.

There are certain types of creativity which is somewhat same as intelligence, like Music Creativity, Artistic Creativity, Scientific Creativity, and Linguistic Creativity and so on.

The examples below will easily make you understand about the term:

• Way to expand scientific creativity with this article.
• Creativity thinking will always be the specialty of humans.
• She is best known for her blossoming artistic creativity and innovation.
• John has outstanding creativity in writing.

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