instinctive

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: in=stinc=tive

CIDE DICTIONARY

instinctive, a. [Cf. F. instinctif.].

 Of or pertaining to instinct; derived from, or prompted by, instinct; of the nature of instinct; determined by natural impulse or propensity; acting or produced without reasoning, deliberation, instruction, or experience; spontaneous.  Cowper.  [1913 Webster]
" The terms instinctive belief, instinctive judgment, instinctive cognition, are expressions not ill adapted to characterize a belief, judgment, or cognition, which, as the result of no anterior consciousness, is, like the products of animal instinct, the intelligent effect of (as far as we are concerned) an unknown cause."  Sir H. Hamilton.
"With taste instinctive give
Each grace appropriate."  [1913 Webster]
"Have we had instinctive intimations of the death of some absent friends?"  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Natural; voluntary; spontaneous; original; innate; inherent; automatic.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

instinctive, adj.
1 relating to or prompted by instinct.
2 apparently unconscious or automatic (an instinctive reaction).

Derivative

instinctively adv.

THESAURUS

instinctive

animal, animalian, animalic, animalistic, atavistic, automatic, beastlike, beastly, bestial, blind, bodily, born, brutal, brute, brutelike, brutish, coeval, compulsive, conditioned, congenital, connatal, connate, connatural, constitutional, dumb, forced, genetic, gut, hereditary, immediate, impulsive, in the blood, inborn, inbred, incarnate, indigenous, ingrained, inherent, inherited, innate, instinctual, intestinal, intrinsic, intuitional, intuitive, involuntary, irrational, libidinal, mechanical, mindless, native, native to, natural, natural to, nonrational, normal, organic, physical, primal, reflex, reflexive, regular, spontaneous, subconscious, subhuman, subliminal, temperamental, typical, unconscious, unintentional, unlearned, unmeditated, unpremeditated, unprompted, unthinking, unwilled, unwilling, unwitting, visceral, zoic, zooidal, zoologic

ROGET THESAURUS

instinctive

Necessity

N necessity, involuntariness, instinct, blind impulse, inborn proclivity, innate proclivity, native tendency, natural tendency, natural impulse, predetermination, necessity, necessitation, obligation, compulsion, subjection, stern necessity, hard necessity, dire necessity, imperious necessity, inexorable necessity, iron necessity, adverse necessity, fate, what must be, destiny, destination, fatality, fate, kismet, doom, foredoom, election, predestination, preordination, foreordination, lot fortune, fatalism, inevitableness, spell, star, stars, planet, planets, astral influence, sky, Fates, Parcae, Sisters three, book of fate, God's will, will of Heaven, wheel of Fortune, Ides of March, Hobson's choice, last shift, last resort, dernier ressort, pis aller, necessaries, necessarian, necessitarian, fatalist, automaton, necessary, needful, fated, destined, elect, spellbound compulsory, uncontrollable, inevitable, unavoidable, irresistible, irrevocable, inexorable, avoidless, resistless, involuntary, instinctive, automatic, blind, mechanical, unconscious, unwitting, unthinking, unintentional, impulsive, necessarily, of necessity, of course, ex necessitate rei, needs must, perforce, nolens volens, will he nil he, willy nilly, bon gre mal gre, willing or unwilling, coute que coute, faute de mieux, by stress of, if need be, it cannot be helped, there is no help for, there is no helping it, it will be, it must be, it needs to be, it must be so, it will have its way, the die is cast, jacta est alea, che sara sara, it is written, one's days are numbered, one's fate is sealed, Fata obstant, diis aliter visum, actum me invito factus, non est meus actus, aujord'hui roi demain rien, quisque suos patimur manes, The moving finger writes and having writ moves on, Nor all thy piety nor wit shall draw it back to ca.

Impulse

N impulse, sudden thought, impromptu, improvisation, inspiration, flash, spurt, improvisatore, creature of impulse, extemporaneous, impulsive, indeliberate, snap, improvised, improvisate, improvisatory, unpremeditated, unmeditated, improvise, unprompted, unguided, natural, unguarded, spontaneous, instinctive, extempore, extemporaneously, offhand, impromptu, a limproviste, improviso, on the spur of the moment, on the spur of the occasion, impulse, impulsion, impetus, momentum, push, pulsion, thrust, shove, jog, jolt, brunt, booming, boost, throw, explosion, propulsion, percussion, concussion, collision, occursion, clash, encounter, cannon, carambole, appulse, shock, crash, bump, impact, elan, charge, beating, blow, dint, stroke, knock, tap, rap, slap, smack, pat, dab, fillip, slam, bang, hit, whack, thwack, cuff, squash, dowse, swap, whap, punch, thump, pelt, kick, punce, calcitration, ruade, arietation, cut, thrust, lunge, yerk, carom, carrom, clip, jab, plug, sidewinder, sidewipe, sideswipe, hammer, sledge hammer, mall, maul, mallet, flail, ram, rammer, battering ram, monkey, pile-driving engine, punch, bat, cant hook, cudgel, ax, dynamics, seismometer, accelerometer, earthquake detector, impelling, impulsive, impellent, booming, dynamic, dynamical, impelled, a hit, a very palpable hit.

Intrinsicality

N intrinsicality, inbeing, inherence, inhesion, subjectiveness, ego, egohood, essence, noumenon, essentialness, essential part, quintessence, incarnation, quiddity, gist, pith, marrow, core, sap, lifeblood, backbone, heart, soul, important part, principle, nature, constitution, character, type, quality, crasis, diathesis, habit, temper, temperament, spirit, humor, grain, disposition, endowment, capacity, capability, moods, declensions, features, aspects, peculiarities, idiosyncrasy, oddity, idiocrasy, diagnostics, derived from within, subjective, intrinsic, intrinsical, fundamental, normal, implanted, inherent, essential, natural, innate, inborn, inbred, ingrained, inwrought, coeval with birth, genetous, haematobious, syngenic, radical, incarnate, thoroughbred, hereditary, inherited, immanent, congenital, congenite, connate, running in the blood, ingenerate, ingenite, indigenous, in the grain, bred in the bone, instinctive, inward, internal, to the manner born, virtual, characteristic, invariable, incurable, incorrigible, ineradicable, fixed, intrinsically, at bottom, in the main, in effect, practically, virtually, substantially, au fond, fairly, character is higher than intellect, come give us a taste of your quality, magnos homines virtute metimur non fortuna, non numero haec judicantur sed pondere, vital spark of heavenly flame.

& Sophistry

N intuition, instinct, association, hunch, gut feeling, presentiment, premonition, rule of thumb, superstition, astrology, faith (supposition), sophistry, paralogy, perversion, casuistry, jesuitry, equivocation, evasion, chicane, chicanery, quiddet, quiddity, mystification, special pleading, speciousness, nonsense, word sense, tongue sense, false reasoning, vicious reasoning, circular reasoning, petitio principii, ignoratio elenchi, post hoc ergo propter hoc, non sequitur, ignotum per ignotius, misjudgment, false teaching, sophism, solecism, paralogism, quibble, quirk, elenchus, elench, fallacy, quodlibet, subterfuge, subtlety, quillet, inconsistency, antilogy, a delusion, a mockery, and a snare, claptrap, cant, mere words, lame and impotent conclusion, meshes of sophistry, cobwebs of sophistry, flaw in an argument, weak point, bad case, overrefinement, hairsplitting, intuitive, instinctive, impulsive, independent of reason, anterior to reason, gratuitous, hazarded, unconnected, unreasonable, illogical, false, unsound, invalid, unwarranted, not following, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsistent, absonous, absonant, unscientific, untenable, inconclusive, incorrect, fallacious, fallible, groundless, unproved, non sequitur, it does not follow, deceptive, sophistical, jesuitical, illusive, illusory, specious, hollow, plausible, ad captandum, evasive, irrelevant, weak, feeble, poor, flimsy, loose, vague, irrational, nonsensical, foolish, frivolous, pettifogging, quibbling, finespun, overrefined, at the end of one's tether, au bout de son latin, intuitively, by intuition, illogically, non constat, that goes for nothing.