Synonyms for instinct
ˈɪn stɪŋktin·stinct

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:5.0 / 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 AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. instinct

   Synonyms:
   prompting, impulse, intuition, inclination

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

Princeton's WordNetRate this synonym:0.0 / 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 SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. instinctnoun

   Synonyms:
   natural impulse

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "instinct":

   gut, intuition, reflex, hunch

NicknamesRate these nicknames:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of known nicknames for "Instinct":

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

Concise Medical Dictionary, by Joseph C Segen, MDRate these synonyms:3.7 / 3 votes

1. instinct

   Synonyms:
   Animal behaviour, inborn drive

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How to use instinct in a sentence?

1. Rebekah Gregory:

   My first instinct as a mother was where in the world was my baby, where was my son.

2. Lily Roberts:

   Financial institutions are fully capable of learning their own history and understanding their own roles in past injustice, next, they must work to ensure that they counter contemporary wrongs and avoid the easier instinct to think of historical context as separate from current circumstances – and be held accountable in doing so by the federal government, by shareholders, and by customers.

3. Juergen Klopp:

   We had to make changes, that is always a bit of a rhythm breaker, in the final third everything is instinct between the regulars, and we missed a bit of that.

4. Frank Milstead:

   Thomas Yoxall didn't help Trooper Ed Andersson out based on whose side Thomas Yoxall was on. Thomas Yoxall did it because it was a gut instinct that told Thomas Yoxall Thomas Yoxall needed to get involved, it's beautiful, it's pure.

5. Le Pen:

   They can do nothing against the survival instinct of the people.