intuitive
adjective
Did you know?
Does intuitive have anything to do with a sixth sense?
Nowadays, we often see intuitive used in contexts pertaining to technology that is easy to understand. A smartphone with an “intuitive interface” is one that doesn't need much explaining; you can usually figure out how it works as soon as you fire it up.
The related noun intuition, meanwhile, describes a feeling of knowing or understanding something without evident rational thought and inference. A parent's intuition might tell him or her that a child is in danger, even if there is no logical reason to believe so.
So does intuitive have anything to do with what is often called the sixth sense? Well, the sixth sense is defined as "a keen intuitive power." It is synonymous with ESP or extrasensory perception. As its name implies, ESP describes a purported ability to know something that cannot be known by normal use of the senses.
The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) used the term intuitive substage to refer to the stage of cognitive development when children have acquired a vast amount of knowledge but have not considered how they acquired it, so they accept it as true.
An interface is intuitive because it makes sense according to what we expect from how older interfaces are designed. A parent's intuitive sense of danger may still be prompted by subtle hints that things just aren't as they should be, even if the parent cannot identify exactly how. So while sixth sense refers to the ability to acquire knowledge from beyond the five senses, intuitive tends to apply more to knowledge absorbed through experience, even when not immediately recognized as such.
Examples of intuitive in a Sentence
Stephan Wilkinson, Popular Science, December 2002
… but most of the literature was political rather than scientific, more interested in … exalting the irrational and intuitive over the rational and quantifiable.
—Paddy Chayefsky, Artificial Paradises, (1978) 1999
Galileo had made an intuitive jump to what we now call Newton's first law of motion: a body in motion tends to remain in motion.
—Leon Lederman et al., The God Particle, 1993
She has an intuitive mind.
a doctor with an intuitive awareness of his patients' concerns
The argument makes intuitive sense.
The software has an intuitive interface.
Literary Hub, 26 May 2026
But its knurled Smart Dial acts as a scroll wheel for books, web pages, and other content – offering a much more intuitive way to read with one hand.
—New Atlas, 25 May 2026
This is even more true in the summer months, when black is a less intuitive choice—as the weather warms, many gravitate towards whites, prints, and pastels; anything to lighten up the mood after a long winter.
—Christina Holevas, Vogue, 25 May 2026
Your intuitive faculties are on point today as the sun coordinates with Neptune.
—Usa Today, USA Today, 24 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for intuitive
Cite this Entry
“Intuitive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intuitive. Accessed 27 May. 2026.
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