as in tendency
a usually innate ability or desire to perform a specific activity
Pouncing on mice is a cat's natural instinct. We needed all of our survival instincts to make it through the weeks lost at sea.
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Examples of instinct in a Sentence
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In it, chugging on instinct and not playbook, Moss juked one defender and spun through another one before landing in the end zone on his head.
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Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2024
Perhaps their cinematic instincts work better when channeled towards younger-leaning fare.
—Tomris Laffly, Variety, 27 Sep. 2024
His characters are so recognizably, painfully millennial because their selfhood is so obviously mediated by the Internet; their instincts are inextricable from their upbringing in an online ecosystem that seizes every individual’s desires and vulnerabilities as fodder for profit and exploitation.
—Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2024
But his instinct is that the deeper mathematical description of nature from which space-time emerges will touch all of physics in some way, even with the mildest of ripples.
—Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 25 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for instinct 
Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2024
Perhaps their cinematic instincts work better when channeled towards younger-leaning fare.
—Tomris Laffly, Variety, 27 Sep. 2024
His characters are so recognizably, painfully millennial because their selfhood is so obviously mediated by the Internet; their instincts are inextricable from their upbringing in an online ecosystem that seizes every individual’s desires and vulnerabilities as fodder for profit and exploitation.
—Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2024
But his instinct is that the deeper mathematical description of nature from which space-time emerges will touch all of physics in some way, even with the mildest of ripples.
—Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 25 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for instinct
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'instinct.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Instinct.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/instinct. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.
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