The phrase "a sort of intellectual" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe someone who possesses intellectual qualities or engages in intellectual pursuits, often in a somewhat vague or informal manner.
Example: "He was a sort of intellectual, always pondering deep questions and engaging in philosophical debates."
Alternatives: "a kind of thinker" or "a type of scholar."
Terrorism is sometimes fuzzily thought to have a sort of intellectual respectability that more banal forms of violence lack.
"In Bergman's world I represented a sort of intellectual, sceptical, ironic person, rather cold and frustrated," he said.
Designing software — or "writing code," as people in the trade say — is a sort of intellectual handiwork.
American University plays a central role as a sort of intellectual boot camp for young people who will become leaders in government and the economy.
Minsky entered Harvard in September of 1946 and found the place a revelation — a sort of intellectual garden salad, "a whole universe of things to do".
While John Eidsmoe, one of Bachmann's professors, was an influence on Bachmann, Lizza suggests a sort of intellectual guilt by association that I think is too severe.
She combines and embodies a sort of Sixties intellectual — a liberal enlightenment with the humor of someone who is constantly curious and academically rigorous".
While his leader, Michael Howard, exudes menace, Mr Letwin is happy to portray himself as a sort of highly intellectual Winnie-the-Pooh.
His classroom is a sort of ravishing intellectual revue: the students are called upon to recite poetry, to improvise scenes using the subjunctive and conditional forms of French verbs, to act out classic movie scenes, even to sing popular songs.
But Éric Zemmour might also be misunderstood by his allies and enemies alike, a sort of hopeless intellectual whose nuance is lost in the sensationalist jumble of the media world he inhabits.
Another concerned the limited pleasures of reading legal briefs rather than serious books ("I find the workload of what I do sufficiently great that when the term of court starts I undergo a sort of annual intellectual lobotomy").
