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Can you suggest/provide a word for a team of magnificent (intelligent or the likes) people?

I'm thinking of words that are not cliche like geniuses..

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    If there are seven of them, you had better call them the Magnificent Seven. If there are five, Fab Five (also works for four). – Patrick M Jul 13 '15 at 15:00
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    The Crystal Gems? – Faraz Masroor Jul 13 '15 at 16:41
  • In (fictional?) sports, the term Dream Team is often used. – Ivo Coumans Jul 14 '15 at 9:16
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If by magnificent you mean hardcore, kick-ass group of folks, A-Team is the term you might be looking for. There is a movie titled that way. :)

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    It actually comes from a TV show, if you want to be accurate. The movie is just based on the show. And if you want to avoid cliches, you probably want to stay away from this one - calling a quality team "the A-Team" is about as cliche as you can get. – talrnu Jul 13 '15 at 14:16
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    Thank you. I was unaware of the TV show until I read your comment. – gelolopez Jul 13 '15 at 16:56
  • @gelolopez: I'm sorry :( – Lightness Races in Orbit Jul 13 '15 at 18:36
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    @talrnu "A-team" as a phrase, I'm sure predates the TV show. They use it in sports, for example, to designate that a school has teams of varying degree in skill. I'm not sure, but I think some militaries refer to their assault squads as "a-teams" sometimes, which is more akin to the use in the show and the movie. – user39425 Jul 13 '15 at 20:32
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    I pity the fool that thinks there's a better term for a team of magnificent people. – corsiKa Jul 13 '15 at 21:41
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Generic: Dream Team

Intelligent: Brain Trust, or Think Tank

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    Dream Team is nice because it not only describes the team's excellence as a single unit, but also suggests each individual member is among the best at what they do (the term describes a team made up of a sport's best players, a team which often only exists in fans' dreams). However, it's also a fairly standard cliche, so it might not fit the asker's particular demands. – talrnu Jul 13 '15 at 19:45
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An efficient, quality team of professionals, especially specialists in their field, is often called a crack team.

crack adj. (attributive): Very good, especially at a specified activity or in a specified role. OED

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    This is an excellent suggestion. "Crack team" emphasises their elite nature while limiting to a team rather than a whole class. – Silverfish Jul 13 '15 at 14:34
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    @Silverfish So does "elite team". – Vladimir Kornea Jul 13 '15 at 17:54
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    Consider also "crack squad". – Silverfish Jul 13 '15 at 20:17
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One possibility is elite; unfortunately, it doesn't imply a team so much as a class.

If "A-team", "crack team", "dream team", etc are valid, then "elite team" is also valid.

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    Only the noun form, e.g. the uncountable "the elite", refers specifically to the class. The adjective, "an elite [noun]", literally means "the best" and could only refer to the class with the help of context. Therefore this answer is perfectly acceptable. – talrnu Jul 13 '15 at 18:00
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Specifically in music, or by analogy to it, you might consider supergroup. From Wikipedia,

A supergroup is a music group whose members are already successful as solo artists or as part of other groups or well known in other musical professions. Usually used in the context of rock and pop music, the term has been applied to other musical genres such as The Three Tenors in opera.

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    Just don't use it to describe a team of mathematicians. – Beta Jul 14 '15 at 3:02
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Well I have seen INTELLIGENTSIA come up before in this stackexchange but I am not sure if that is exactly what you want.

I have heard terms such as "boffins" and "eggheads" used while living in London which roughly mean a group of experts.

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    egghead seems to be a negative word. – Yaje Jul 13 '15 at 5:36
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    Intelligentsia refers to the collective intellectuals on a society. It is far.more larger than a group would imply. Think of it as the ruling thinking class. – gelolopez Jul 13 '15 at 6:07
  • @Yaje: It was coined as a pejorative by the Nazis, but it's become ambiguous, like nerd. – Beta Jul 14 '15 at 3:03
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Do you mean they're magnificent in the sense that they're super intelligent (i.e. geniuses), or they're magnificent because they use their intelligence to do wonderful things?

If you're thinking of the latter, then I'd suggest intellectuals. I think brainiacs is sometimes used as a synonym for geniuses.

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For a team of magnificent people? I'd use the word Professionals. It basically implies that the persons in question are above the norm.

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