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. See More

Recent Examples on the Web My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. — Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 May 2022 My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important. — Will Daniel, Fortune, 26 Apr. 2022 At the same time, Aciar — his friends and family call him Fefo — can be a little more creatively intuitive and hands-on, while Polonsky is more methodical and likely to remain focused on the big picture. — New York Times, 28 Apr. 2022 Pisces is a profoundly intuitive and creative water sign. — Sophie Saint Thomas, Allure, 25 Apr. 2022 Be sure your insights platform is intuitive and easy to use. — Thor Olof Philogène, Forbes, 14 Apr. 2022 By properly conveying data in an easy and intuitive manner, automakers and their chip partners can also aid drivers in their decision-making process and improve traffic safety. — Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 7 Jan. 2022 Keller insists, though, that exact recreation of the real world isn’t necessary to have a natural and intuitive experience in VR. — Lauren Goode, Wired, 16 Nov. 2021 Therapists and dieticians who specialize in eating disorders or intuitive eating are great places to start, Smolar said. — Madeline Holcombe, CNN, 21 Mar. 2022 See More

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.