Mastermindとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From master +‎ mind.

発音

• (英国発音) IPA: /ˈmɑː.stə.mʌɪnd/
• (米国発音) IPA: /ˈmæs.tɚˌmaɪnd/

名詞

mastermind (plural masterminds)

1. A person with an extraordinary intellect or skill that is markedly superior to their 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, 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. (idiomatic) 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, page 196:

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

   • 2025 March 14, Hsieh Hsin-en, Ko Lin, “Supreme Court upholds verdicts in 2022 Tainan shooting case”, in Focus Taiwan‎, archived from the original on 14 March 2025, Society‎:

     Prosecutors later suspected that Wang, chairman of Ciji Temple in Tainan's Syuejia District, was the mastermind behind the shootings, but the court acquitted him of the charge because of insufficient evidence.

派生語

派生した語

• → German: Mastermind

動詞

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

1. (transitive) To act in the role of mastermind.
   • 2007, Kevin Danaher et al., Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots, →ISBN, 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.

   • 2020 July 1, David Allen, “Signalling from Leeds along the S&C”, in Rail, page 78:

     Travelling over the route today, it is well to remember the ongoing role of the Friends of the S&C and the work of the late Ron Cotton. He masterminded its revival, thereby reversing the role he had been given by BR to bring about its closure.

参照

• “mastermind”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

アナグラム

• mindstream