Dictionaries › English

instinct

Pronunciation: /ˈɪn.stɪŋkt/

The English word “instinct” has 3 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A natural or inherent impulse or behaviour.
  2. An intuitive reaction not based on rational conscious thought.

adjective

  1. Imbued, charged (with something).

Etymology

From Latin īnstīnctus, past participle of īnstinguō (“to incite, to instigate”), from in (“in, on”) + stinguō (“to prick”).

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “instinct” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.