A genius is a person of great intelligence, who shows an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as shown in creative and original work. The term may also be applied to someone who is a polymath or a prodigy. Although the term is sometimes used to denote the possession of a superior talent in any field (e.g., Roger Federer may be said to have a genius for tennis or Winston Churchill for statesmanship), in many instances the term is used specifically to denote an exceptional natural capacity of intellect in areas of art, literature, music, science and mathematics.
Artistic genius may show itself in early childhood as a prodigy or later in life; either way, geniuses eventually differentiate themselves from the others through great originality. It is thought intellectual geniuses have crisp, clear-eyed visions of given situations, in which interpretation is unnecessary, and they build or act on the basis of those facts, usually with tremendous energy. Accomplished geniuses in intellectual fields start out in many cases as child prodigies, gifted with superior memory or understanding.
The classic skill of the musical genius is the capability of holding many different melodies in one's head at once and knowing how they interact together. It is said that the great classical composers (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, etc.) could hold five, six or even seven different melodies in their minds at once. They could write complicated music with many different parts all at once without having to hear it played. In comparison, the average person can only hold one melody in memory. Mozart, who apparently completed his musical compositions in his head and simply wrote them down when he was done, is supposed to have often said while drinking and conversing with friends, "I write music as a sow pisses."
The multiple intelligences hypothesis put forth by Harvard University professor Howard Gardner in his 1983 book Frames of Mind states there are at least seven types of intelligences, each with its own type of genius. This theory, however, is rejected by most psychologists.
Intelligence is exceptionally difficult to determine. The standard measurement in the United States is via the I.Q. test. It is suggested that genius cannot be determined by I.Q. alone, where it falls into various domains. It is generally recognized that those who are transcendent in one or more fields (though again, this term is difficult to measure) can be considered geniuses. However, even with this caveat on its use, the concept of I.Q. is still criticized as being too narrow a mode of measuring something as ambiguous and diverse as the intellectual qualities of humanity. There are several examples of people with IQ levels in the genius range while having a disability or very low level in one of the subcategories. The IQ test has also been criticized as being racist in its application and conclusions despite that these tests are designed to eliminate race/sex for example by predicting numerical sequences, etc.