For example, “animal”, “man” and “horse” are general terms that do not refer to any particular individual in the natural world.
[1] Plato referred to the intelligible realm of mathematics, forms, first principles, logical deduction, and the dialectical method.
When the demiurge creates, he governs the purely passive nature of matter by imposing a sensible form, which is an image of the intelligible forms contained as thoughts within the mind of the Demiurge, upon the pure passivity of matter.
[3] In chapter 81 of the Compendium Theologiae, Saint Thomas Aquinas states that "the higher an intellectual substance is in perfection, the more universal are the intelligible forms it possesses.
Therefore, since of all intellectual substances man’s possible intellect is found to be the closest to corporeal matter, its intelligible forms must, likewise, be most closely allied to material things.