IQ tests were for children. French children to be precise. [123test.com]

I'd say the ability to learn, welcome new ideas and think critically. The rest, like being good at math for instance, it's really like an elaborate game of trivia.

Intelligence is the ability to extrapolate meaning and usage from information.

I am intellegent, but I don't think I meet the grade for wht you are asking

I thought it as about ‘processing speed’, so to speak, but I may be wrong.

You know a bunch of cool stuff that's interesting to talk about while high

Metacognition, curiosity. Other strong indicators..they've kept a journal from childhood, tend to be slightly OCD, often on the autistic spectrum, unconcerned with the opinions of others as they pursue their obsessive interests, usually cynical, skeptical, often atheist, often strong readers from an early age, think out of the box, usually humorous.

In my opinion, @Akfishlady nailed it regarding emotional intelligence ... highly under-appreciated. And while I greatly admire and respect pure savant-like intellect, I believe we've become so consumed with specialized talent that sometimes forget what it means to be 'well rounded.' Where are the Renaissance men and women today? The high IQ, artistic, athletic, engineering geniuses who have emotional intelligence?

the ability to learn new things, and to accept when their knowledge is in error.

It's highly contextual and relative. Need to define skills and talents separately. Their effective correlation with your environment can be considered intelligence.

A person good in spatial intelligence need not be good in other spheres like verbal intelligence and vice versa.

I am good in observation and I can identify small changes in people's behaviour to me but I lack in communication or expression so basically I fail to reciprocate to people in the way they want. Am I intelligent or not?

Unless intelligence is on par with an Einstein, which few of us are, I prefer to measure people by their wisdom. Wisdom is equal parts intelligence, observation, and careful introspection.

The examples you mentioned about being quantifiable made me think of things that Dr. Sheldon Cooper lacks.

Being clever on paper means nothing really in the real world.

You have to be smart enough to hang out with the right people. Folks just a little dumber than you. Which makes you smartest one in the room.

I think that the greater intelligence shows it self in making many and lasting connections between things which are not obviously connected - hence progressing human knowledge. It is not connected with remembering knowledge although both tend to occur together . I picture something in the brain wildy waving arround to try to connect to a different waving something from another retained thought.

Easy, just take a quick glance at the INT score on their character sheet

Play 8 ball with them

I think children who are able to play the piano, or something similar, at a level far above the average have talent, not necessarily intelligence. If those same children are able to learn at an above average rate, they are intelligent. Intelligence includes social, "street", knowledge as well as academic training.

Nice post thanks! I remember taking an I.Q test for a work assessment the assessors said after a full days work - I had a great score but, sorry to point out that my spatial awareness was seriously low and that I wouldnt be able to be a potter as I wished - I gained several prizes for my raku pots and achieved a first in fine and applied arts despite my 'apparent ' disability, the tests were proven not to be accurate, good job I never listened. I agree many many ways to be intelligent

The first is common sense. The second is being able to understand that there are different ways to look at things. Also by the way the they speak and write.

If they know what they are talking about and what they are doing, they have intelligence. My friend is an aerospace engineer, but got married twice on first dates. He has intelligence, but sometimes lacks smarts

You are right. It's all a matter of who and what you agree with.
As a former appliance repairman I was always running onto people who had saved a part from one brand so they could use it on another. Sorry. That doesn't work.

Experience, learning from mistakes, creating, thinking outside normal perimeter (box), patients, logical thinking, deduction, willingness to try new things, strategy..

"There are so many different ways to be intelligent." Can you post a link to a study that gives evidence of that...or is that just a platutude?

We live in different environments . I think a person is intelligent if they can succeessfully navigate the environment they're in , or perhaps move to an environment where they can be more sucessful . A fish doesn't need a bicycle , as they say . The IQ tests are based largly on , " book learning , " which can be very useful and can help a person succeed in higher level environments , where they can get higher paying careers - programmers , computer experts , lawyers , doctors , actors , etc. Lower paying jobs , waitresses , garbage collectors , are physically demanding , yet repiticious and don't require a higher education . Some jobs , can begin as lower paying jobs , and you can advance to better paying jobs , by acquiring a higher education , which , in general , requires reading .