as in instincts
an innate sense of what is true or what will happen
Although the child looked fine, the parents' intuition told them something was wrong.
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Recent Examples of intuitions
His tenure has seen the state fall hard for faddish progressive policies on immigration, education, and crime that either didn’t work, violated the intuitions of most Americans, or both.
—
Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 22 Jan. 2026
In the decades that followed, researchers such as Susan Fiske and Dacher Keltner started testing these intuitions in a rigorous and scientific fashion.
—Caleb Pomeroy, Foreign Affairs, 24 Dec. 2025
But there are clues that his intuitions about how people behave remained consistent.
—Shayla Love, New Yorker, 17 Dec. 2025
There are instincts or intuitions that arise for me that prove to be quite practical and useful.
—Literary Hub, 24 Nov. 2025
His approach centers around a radical openness to abandoning intuitions about how the world works.
—Zack Savitsky, Quanta Magazine, 29 Oct. 2025
Oftentimes, people rely on gut intuitions to answer these kinds of questions.
—Athena Aktipis, The Conversation, 10 Oct. 2025
His best cuisine intuitions and concoctions served as part of the hotel’s fine-dining experience stem not from standing at the stovetop but from plenty of solo time spent pedaling his bicycle across Italian hilltops — music in the ears, pulse racing fast and nature all around him.
—Sandra Salibian, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2025
The author Annaka Harris makes the case for why our common intuitions about consciousness are all wrong.
—Stephen Johnson, Big Think, 20 Aug. 2025
Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 22 Jan. 2026
In the decades that followed, researchers such as Susan Fiske and Dacher Keltner started testing these intuitions in a rigorous and scientific fashion.
—Caleb Pomeroy, Foreign Affairs, 24 Dec. 2025
But there are clues that his intuitions about how people behave remained consistent.
—Shayla Love, New Yorker, 17 Dec. 2025
There are instincts or intuitions that arise for me that prove to be quite practical and useful.
—Literary Hub, 24 Nov. 2025
His approach centers around a radical openness to abandoning intuitions about how the world works.
—Zack Savitsky, Quanta Magazine, 29 Oct. 2025
Oftentimes, people rely on gut intuitions to answer these kinds of questions.
—Athena Aktipis, The Conversation, 10 Oct. 2025
His best cuisine intuitions and concoctions served as part of the hotel’s fine-dining experience stem not from standing at the stovetop but from plenty of solo time spent pedaling his bicycle across Italian hilltops — music in the ears, pulse racing fast and nature all around him.
—Sandra Salibian, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2025
The author Annaka Harris makes the case for why our common intuitions about consciousness are all wrong.
—Stephen Johnson, Big Think, 20 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for intuitions
instincts
Noun
-
Focusing strictly on survival, the History series strands 10 individuals by themselves in the wilderness, testing their primal instincts and adaptability.—
Kevin Jacobsen,
Entertainment Weekly,
4 Feb. 2026
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Or maybe his inflation-fighting instincts never really existed.—
Steve Chapman,
Chicago Tribune,
4 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Intuitions.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/intuitions. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.
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