What is another word for instinct?

Synonyms for instinct
ˈɪn stɪŋktin·stinct

This thesaurus page includes all potential synonyms, words with the same meaning and similar terms for the word instinct.

English Synonyms and Antonyms5.0 / 1 vote

  1. instinct

    Mind, in a general sense, includes all the powers of sentient being apart from the physical factors in bodily faculties and activities; in a limited sense, mind is nearly synonymous with intellect, but includes disposition, or the tendency toward action, as appears in the phrase "to have a mind to work." As the seat of mental activity, brain (colloquially brains) is often used as a synonym for mind, intellect, intelligence. Thought, the act, process, or power of thinking, is often used to denote the thinking faculty, and especially the reason. The instinct of animals is now held by many philosophers to be of the same nature as the intellect of man, but inferior and limited; yet the apparent difference is very great.

    An instinct is a propensity prior to experience and independent of instruction.

    Paley Natural Philosophy ch. 18.

    In this sense we speak of human instincts, thus denoting tendencies independent of reasoning or instruction. The soul includes the intellect, sensibilities, and will; beyond what is expressed by the word mind, the soul denotes especially the moral, the immortal nature; we say of a dead body, the soul (not the mind) has fled. Spirit is used especially in contradistinction from matter; it may in many cases be substituted for soul, but soul has commonly a fuller and more determinate meaning; we can conceive of spirits as having no moral nature; the fairies, elves, and brownies of mythology might be termed spirits, but not souls. In the figurative sense, spirit denotes animation, excitability, perhaps impatience; as, a lad of spirit; he sang with spirit; he replied with spirit. Soul denotes energy and depth of feeling, as when we speak of soulful eyes; or it may denote the very life of anything; as, "the hidden soul of harmony," Milton L'Allegro l. 144. Sense may be an antonym of intellect, as when we speak of the sense of hearing; but sense is used also as denoting clear mental action, good judgment, acumen; as, he is a man of sense, or, he showed good sense; sense, even in its material signification, must be reckoned among the activities of mind, tho dependent on bodily functions; the mind, not the eye, really sees; the mind, not the ear, really hears. Consciousness includes all that a sentient being perceives, knows, thinks, or feels, from whatever source arising and of whatever character, kind, or degree, whether with or without distinct thinking, feeling, or willing; we speak of the consciousness of the brute, of the savage, or of the sage. The intellect is that assemblage of faculties which is concerned with knowledge, as distinguished from emotion and volition. Understanding is the Saxon word of the same general import, but is chiefly used of the reasoning powers; the understanding, which Sir Wm. Hamilton has called "the faculty of relations and comparisons," is distinguished by many philosophers from reason in that "reason is the faculty of the higher cognitions or a priori truth."

    Synonyms:
    brain, consciousness, disposition, intellect, intelligence, mind, reason, reason, sense, soul, spirit, thought, understanding

    Antonyms:
    body, brawn, brute force, material substance, matter

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms0.0 / 0 votes

  1. instinct

    Synonyms:
    prompting, impulse, intuition, inclination

    Antonyms:
    reason, reasoning, abstraction, deliberation, experience, experiment, elaboration, judgment

Princeton's WordNet0.0 / 0 votes

  1. instinct, inherent aptitudeadjective

    inborn pattern of behavior often responsive to specific stimuli

    "the spawning instinct in salmon"; "altruistic instincts in social animals"

    Synonyms:
    inherent aptitude

    Antonyms:
    empty

  2. instinct(p), replete(p)adjective

    (followed by `with')deeply filled or permeated

    "imbued with the spirit of the Reformation"; "words instinct with love"; "it is replete with misery"

    Antonyms:
    empty

Dictionary of English Synonymes0.0 / 0 votes

  1. instinctnoun

    Synonyms:
    natural impulse

PPDB, the paraphrase database0.0 / 0 votes

  1. List of paraphrases for "instinct":

    gut, intuition, reflex, hunch

Nicknames0.0 / 0 votes

  1. List of known nicknames for "Instinct":

    Phase 1, J.C. Smith II, Glen Nicholls

Concise Medical Dictionary, by Joseph C Segen, MD3.7 / 3 votes

  1. instinct

    Synonyms:
    Animal behaviour, inborn drive

How to pronounce instinct?

How to say instinct in sign language?

Words popularity by usage frequency

rankingword
#991thought
#1074mind
#1246reason
#1568sense
#1670understanding
#2181spirit
#2386brain
#2403soul
#2526intelligence
#7686consciousness
#9224disposition
#13290impulse
#13877gut
#16146reflex
#17800instinct
#18811intuition
#19073intellect
#23687inclination
#26096prompting
#50532hunch

How to use instinct in a sentence?

  1. Socrates:

    I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

  2. George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron:

    There is no instinct like that of the heart.

  3. Benjamin Disraeli:

    Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like most great things, you must cultivate a taste for them.

  4. William Ellery Channing:

    There are seasons, in human affairs, of inward and outward revolution, when new depths seem to be broken up in the soul, when new wants are unfolded in multitudes, and a new and undefined good is thirsted for. There are periods when the principles of experience need to be modified, when hope and trust and instinct claim a share with prudence in the guidance of affairs when, in truth, to dare is the highest wisdom.

  5. Debasish Mridha, M.D.:

    Love is the instinct for creation. If there is no love, there is no humanity.


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"instinct." Synonyms.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/instinct>.

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    Which of the following is a synonym of the word Grunt?
    A Shout
    B Growl
    C Praise
    D Frown

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