instinctive

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Related to instinctive: instinctual, Instinctive behavior

in·stinc·tive

(ĭn-stĭngk′tĭv)

adj.

1. Of, relating to, or prompted by instinct: an instinctive ability to build a nest.

a. Arising from impulse or natural inclination; done without thought or conscious effort; spontaneous: an instinctive sympathy for the downtrodden.

b. Being such by natural inclination rather than conscious effort or study: "Both men were instinctive masters at seizing unexpected openings and turning them into victories" (Nick Kotz).

in·stinc′tive·ly adv.

Synonyms: instinctive, instinctual, intuitive, visceral
These adjectives refer to things that arise from a natural tendency or impulse: an instinctive desire to help others; an instinctual respect for authority; an intuitive feeling that something is wrong; a visceral reaction to the scandalous news.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

instinctive

(ɪnˈstɪŋktɪv) or

instinctual

adj

1. (Biology) of, relating to, or resulting from instinct

2. conditioned so as to appear innate: an instinctive movement in driving.

inˈstinctively, inˈstinctually adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

in•stinc•tive

(ɪnˈstɪŋk tɪv)

also in•stinc•tu•al

(-tʃu əl)

adj.

1. pertaining to or of the nature of instinct.

2. prompted by or resulting from or as if from instinct; natural; unlearned.

[1640–50]

in•stinc′tive•ly, in•stinc′tu•al•ly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.

instinctive - unthinking; prompted by (or as if by) instinct; "a cat's natural aversion to water"; "offering to help was as instinctive as breathing"

natural

self-generated, spontaneous - happening or arising without apparent external cause; "spontaneous laughter"; "spontaneous combustion"; "a spontaneous abortion"

instinctive

adjective natural, inborn, automatic, unconscious, mechanical, native, inherent, spontaneous, reflex, innate, intuitive, subconscious, involuntary, visceral, unthinking, instinctual, unlearned, hard-wired, unpremeditated, intuitional It's an instinctive reaction. If a child falls you pick it up.
considered, learned, acquired, calculated, voluntary, thinking, premeditated

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

instinctive

adjective

1. Derived from or prompted by a natural tendency or impulse:

instinctual, intuitive, visceral.

2. Acting or happening without apparent forethought, prompting, or planning:

automatic, impulsive, involuntary, reflex, spontaneous, unpremeditated.

Translations

غَريزي

instinktivní

instinktiv

instinktiv unwillkürlich

instintivo

instinctif

ösztönös

eîlislægur; ósjálfráîur

istintivo

instinktiv

inštinktívny

nagonski

içgüdüsel

本能的

instinctive

[ɪnˈstɪŋktɪv] ADJ → instintivo

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

instinctive

[ɪnˈstɪŋktɪv] adj [reaction, response] → instinctif/ive; [feeling] → instinctif/ive

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

instinctive

adj → instinktiv; behaviour also → instinktgesteuert

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

instinctive

[ɪnˈstɪŋktɪv] adj → istintivo/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

instinct

(ˈinstiŋkt) noun

a natural tendency to behave or react in a particular way, without thinking and without having been taught. As winter approaches, swallows fly south from Britain by instinct; He has an instinct for saying the right thing.

inˈstinctive (-tiv) adjective

arising from instinct or from a natural ability. Blinking our eyes is an instinctive reaction when something suddenly comes close to them; I couldn't help putting my foot on the brake when I saw the other car coming towards me – it was instinctive.

inˈstinctively adverb

in·stinc·tive

, instinctual

a. instintivo-a.

References in classic literature ?

An action, which we ourselves should require experience to enable us to perform, when performed by an animal, more especially by a very young one, without any experience, and when performed by many individuals in the same way, without their knowing for what purpose it is performed, is usually said to be instinctive. But I could show that none of these characters of instinct are universal.

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Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal.

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There are regrets, memories, the instinctive longing for the departed idleness, the instinctive hate of all work.

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At his first Appearance my Sensibility was wonderfully affected and e'er I had gazed at him a 2d time, an instinctive sympathy whispered to my Heart, that he was my Grandfather.

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I think that even then I had an instinctive doubt whether formlessness was really better than formality.

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"Are we only Pharisees after all?" he wondered, puzzled by the effort to reconcile his instinctive disgust at human vileness with his equally instinctive pity for human frailty.

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On the other hand, being a sheep-dog, her instinctive fear of the Wild, and especially of the wolf, was unusually keen.

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Nancy would have said some words of comfort under this disgrace, but she refrained, from an instinctive sense that there was something behind-- that Godfrey had something else to tell her.

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Everyone talked a little louder than natural in an instinctive desire to make the party go, and there was a great deal of noise in the room.

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Why is she so happy?" Prince Andrew asked himself with instinctive curiosity.

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The proof that her behavior and Agafea Mihalovna's was not instinctive, animal, irrational, was that apart from the physical treatment, the relief of suffering, both Agafea Mihalovna and Kitty required for the dying man something else more important than the physical treatment, and something which had nothing in common with physical conditions.

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Her features, never the most agreeable, and now harsh with age and grief, and resentment against the world for his sake; her dress, and especially her turban; the queer and quaint manners, which had unconsciously grown upon her in solitude,--such being the poor gentlewoman's outward characteristics, it is no great marvel, although the mournfullest of pities, that the instinctive lover of the Beautiful was fain to turn away his eyes.

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