Definition of INTUITIVE

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

The controls of an airplane are intuitive. Push to nose down, pull to nose up, turn left, turn right. — 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.

Recent Examples on the Web

In the campaign images the models are still wearing minimal skin makeup, and the products all seem fairly intuitive to use (glitter doesn't require the same amount of skill level as contouring), so the OG brand's DNA is still there. — Glamour, "I Wore Glossier Play for a Night Out—Here’s How It Held Up," 28 Mar. 2019 Return to this knowledge right now, and tap into an intuitive sense of your own next steps. — Bess Matassa, Teen Vogue, "Monthly Lovescopes April 2018," 27 Mar. 2018 In their book, Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works, registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch write about how to get back in touch with these cues and to use intuitive eating to make peace with food. — SELF, "PSA: Healthy Eating Should Include Mental and Social Health, Too.," 11 Jan. 2019 Tekken 3 holds up remarkably well, with its intuitive controls and shockingly competent camera. — Andrew Webster, The Verge, "PlayStation Classic review: a journey through the exciting, awkward days of early 3D games," 27 Nov. 2018 But while her passion for fitness seems intuitive, health consciousness wasn’t always part of Arias’s life. — Akili King, Vogue, "With Followers Like Gabrielle Union and SZA, Health Coach Massy Arias Pushes the Boundaries of a Gym Routine," 15 Feb. 2019 There were already some early reports that Meghan was set to take over London's National Theatre from the Queen, an intuitive pairing that's connected with Meghan's early days as an actor. — Katherine J. Igoe, Marie Claire, "Meghan Markle Receives Not One But Four Royal Patronages," 10 Jan. 2019 The four-foot robot has large eyes, lifelike gestures and facial recognition technology that allows it to discern a guest’s gender, approximate age and mood, and respond in intuitive ways to entertain guests by telling jokes and posing for selfies. — Nora Walsh, New York Times, "The Next Time You Order Room Service, It May Come by Robot," 29 Jan. 2018 On Galaxy phones, One UI brings a refined aesthetic and smart interface that shifts content and menus to make apps more intuitive, and moving it to tablets is a logical and important step toward building an iOS-like ecosystem. — Michael Simon, PCWorld, "The ultra-thin Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e has an OLED screen, Android Pie and no S Pen for $400," 15 Feb. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'intuitive.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.