Synonyms for instinct
- aptitude
- feeling
- hunch
- impulse
- inclination
- intuition
- knack
- savvy
- sense
- sentiment
- talent
- tendency
- faculty
- gift
- know-how
- nose
- predisposition
- proclivity
- urge
- funny feeling
- gut reaction
- sixth sense
Antonyms for instinct
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR INSTINCT
She said it, as if guided by an instinct, to sound the depth of his love for her.
What instinct made you choose that shade of pale green for your frock?
Yet she wondered if the instinct were not dormant, needing but the suggestion.
Was it an instinct, she wondered—a reminder that there was in them material for manhood?
His instinct of sympathy with which he had greeted her at the outset was repelled, and made of no avail.
Nature has provided for this by evolving the instinct of docility.
Some instinct warned her that this danger was even worse than it seemed.
Usually one might count on the woman's silence, her instinct for self-protection.
Just as the last ones were leaving, some instinct told me that Mr. Hynes had come.
It is the newspaper man's instinct to be in the center of the fray.
WORD ORIGIN
early 15c., "a prompting," from Latin instinctus "instigation, impulse," noun use of past participle of instinguere "to incite, impel," from in- "on" (see in- (2)) + stinguere "prick, goad," from PIE *steig- "to prick, stick, pierce" (see stick (v.)). Meaning "animal faculty of intuitive perception" is from mid-15c., from notion of "natural prompting." Sense of "innate tendency" is first recorded 1560s.