mastermind

noun

1. A person with an extraordinary intellect or skill that is markedly superior to their peers.

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

   “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.

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

   “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.”

verb

1. (transitive)To act in the role of mastermind.

   “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.”

   “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.”