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 Antonyms
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, understandingAntonyms:
body, brawn, brute force, material substance, matter
Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms
instinct
Synonyms:
prompting, impulse, intuition, inclinationAntonyms:
reason, reasoning, abstraction, deliberation, experience, experiment, elaboration, judgment
Princeton's WordNet
instinct, inherent aptitudeadjective
inborn pattern of behavior often responsive to specific stimuli
"the spawning instinct in salmon"; "altruistic instincts in social animals"
Synonyms:
inherent aptitudeAntonyms:
emptyinstinct(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 Synonymes
instinctnoun
Synonyms:
natural impulse
Nicknames
List of known nicknames for "Instinct":
Concise Medical Dictionary, by Joseph C Segen, MD
instinct
Synonyms:
Animal behaviour, inborn drive
Words popularity by usage frequency
ranking | word | |
---|---|---|
#991 | thought | |
#1074 | mind | |
#1246 | reason | |
#1568 | sense | |
#1670 | understanding | |
#2181 | spirit | |
#2386 | brain | |
#2403 | soul | |
#2526 | intelligence | |
#7686 | consciousness | |
#9224 | disposition | |
#13290 | impulse | |
#13877 | gut | |
#16146 | reflex | |
#17800 | instinct | |
#18811 | intuition | |
#19073 | intellect | |
#23687 | inclination | |
#26096 | prompting | |
#50532 | hunch |
How to use instinct in a sentence?
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.
George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron:
There is no instinct like that of the heart.
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.
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.
Love is the instinct for creation. If there is no love, there is no humanity.
Translations for instinct
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- instinkAfrikaans
- سليقة, غريزه, غريزة, فطرةArabic
- InstinktGerman
- instintoSpanish
- غریزهPersian
- vaistoFinnish
- instinctFrench
- אינסטינקטHebrew
- स्वाभाविकHindi
- ösztönHungarian
- naluriIndonesian
- istintoItalian
- יֵצHebrew
- 本能Japanese
- 본능, 本能Korean
- instinctuLatin
- garizah, insting, naluriMalay
- instinctDutch
- instynktPolish
- instintoPortuguese
- инстинктRussian
- nágonSerbo-Croatian
- tshekameloSouthern Sotho
- instinktSwedish
- உள்ளுணர்வுTamil
- స్వభావంTelugu
- สัญชาตญาณThai
- insiyak, içgüdü, sevkitabiiTurkish
- інстинктUkrainian
- سنتیںUrdu
- 本能, bản năngVietnamese
- 直觉Chinese
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"instinct." Synonyms.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/instinct>.
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