instinct
A natural or inherent impulse or behaviour.
Example
“Many animals fear fire by instinct.”
Other meanings
An intuitive reaction not based on rational conscious thought.
“an instinct for order; to be modest by instinct”
Related words
- instinctual
- gut instinct
- instinctively
- death instinct
- herd instinct
- herding instinct
- instinct shooting
- killer instinct
- instinctive
- survival instinct
Example sentences
Word history
From Latin "īnstīnctus".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “instinct” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.