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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Recent Examples of instinct
That instinct—to layer rather than pare back—extends beyond soft furnishings to the home’s harder-working spaces.
—
Leonora Epstein, Architectural Digest, 13 Feb. 2026
But to be able to bring in a young, exciting player that plays all over the diamond, a strong defender, an elite defender, elite baserunner (who) can make contact … very strong instincts for the game.
—Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 12 Feb. 2026
The questions multiplied, each driven by the same instinct to protect and survive.
—Adrianne Wright, Fortune, 11 Feb. 2026
The maximalism and somewhat uncompromising presumption of a newspaper, with its warren of sections and columns and byways, is a quiet reproach to its audience’s most parochial instincts.
—Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for instinct
Leonora Epstein, Architectural Digest, 13 Feb. 2026
But to be able to bring in a young, exciting player that plays all over the diamond, a strong defender, an elite defender, elite baserunner (who) can make contact … very strong instincts for the game.
—Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 12 Feb. 2026
The questions multiplied, each driven by the same instinct to protect and survive.
—Adrianne Wright, Fortune, 11 Feb. 2026
The maximalism and somewhat uncompromising presumption of a newspaper, with its warren of sections and columns and byways, is a quiet reproach to its audience’s most parochial instincts.
—Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for instinct
Recent Examples of Synonyms for instinct
Noun
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If readers are at all uncertain of his sociopathic tendencies, Heathcliff then hangs his wife’s dog.—
Natasha O'Neill,
Vanity Fair,
13 Feb. 2026
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The Turkish experience also speaks to the tendency of diasporas to become politically frozen at the moment of departure from their home countries.—
Michael Paarlberg,
The Conversation,
12 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Using skills, Codex can pull design assets from Figma, manage bug tracking and releases in Linear, deploy applications to cloud platforms such as Vercel and Cloudflare, and generate images using OpenAI’s image model.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
5 Feb. 2026
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Kate had changed her hair into a stylish bob — but apparently hadn’t updated her mothering skills — two years later when, in the sequel, Kevin again was discovered missing, at the Miami airport.—
Jocelyn Noveck,
Mercury News,
5 Feb. 2026
Noun
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This is because when people lose weight, the body’s natural inclination is to return to its previous weight – a phenomenon called metabolic adaptation.—
Amy J. Sheer,
The Conversation,
5 Feb. 2026
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The 11 satellites on board are flying to a mid-inclination orbit.—
Richard Tribou,
The Orlando Sentinel,
30 Jan. 2026
Noun
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We should be asked how our youth retain the impulse to be free when trigger-happy Israeli soldiers and snipers are ordered to kill unarmed children demanding their human rights.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 Feb. 2026
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What remains is a story narrowed to its most immediate impulses.—
Ana Gutierrez,
Austin American Statesman,
11 Feb. 2026
Noun
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If so, provide details and disposition.—
Delores Rangel,
Sun Sentinel,
13 Feb. 2026
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The 132-pound freshman wrestler has an even-keel disposition which combines with a wherewithal to realize that his early accomplishments have put him well ahead of schedule.—
Patrick Z. McGavin,
Chicago Tribune,
10 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Instinct.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/instinct. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.
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