intuition

[ in-too-ish-uhn, -tyoo- ]
See synonyms for intuition on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension.

  2. a fact, truth, etc., perceived in this way.

  1. a keen and quick insight.

  2. the quality or ability of having such direct perception or quick insight.

  3. Philosophy.

    • an immediate cognition of an object not inferred or determined by a previous cognition of the same object.

    • any object or truth so discerned.

    • pure, untaught, noninferential knowledge.

  4. Linguistics. the ability of the native speaker to make linguistic judgments, as of the grammaticality, ambiguity, equivalence, or nonequivalence of sentences, deriving from the speaker's native-language competence.

Origin of intuition

1
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Late Latin intuitiōn-, stem of intuitiō “contemplation,” equivalent to Latin intuit(us), past participle of intuērī “to gaze at, contemplate” + -iō -ion; see in-2, tuition

Other words from intuition

  • in·tu·i·tion·less, adjective

Words Nearby intuition

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use intuition in a sentence

  • But Ramona saw now, with infallible intuition, that even as she had loved Alessandro, so Felipe loved her.

    Ramona | Helen Hunt Jackson
  • In that poignant moment of self-revelation Tom's cumbersome machinery of intuition did not fail him.

    The Wave | Algernon Blackwood
  • Oh, yes, you needn't tell me again that it's difficult to distinguish between fancy and intuition.

    Three More John Silence Stories | Algernon Blackwood
  • He fathomed every complication of heart and mind in the modern woman by an intuition of the laws which control her development.

    Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A -- Z | Anatole Cerfberr and Jules Franois Christophe
  • She got the tales by intuition rather than by words, though she was picking up some French at that.

    The Amazing Interlude | Mary Roberts Rinehart

British Dictionary definitions for intuition

intuition

/ (ˌɪntjʊˈɪʃən) /


noun
  1. knowledge or belief obtained neither by reason nor by perception

  2. instinctive knowledge or belief

  1. a hunch or unjustified belief

  2. philosophy immediate knowledge of a proposition or object such as Kant's account of our knowledge of sensible objects

  3. the supposed faculty or process by which we obtain any of these

Origin of intuition

1
C15: from Late Latin intuitiō a contemplation, from Latin intuērī to gaze upon, from tuērī to look at

Derived forms of intuition

  • intuitional, adjective
  • intuitionally, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012