insight
Americannoun
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an instance of apprehending the true nature of a thing, especially through intuitive understanding.
an insight into 18th-century life.
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penetrating mental vision or discernment; faculty of seeing into inner character or underlying truth.
- Synonyms:
- grasp, understanding, intuition, apprehension, perception
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Psychology.
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an understanding of relationships that sheds light on or helps solve a problem.
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(in psychotherapy) the recognition of sources of emotional difficulty.
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an understanding of the motivational forces behind one's actions, thoughts, or behavior; self-knowledge.
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noun
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the ability to perceive clearly or deeply; penetration
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a penetrating and often sudden understanding, as of a complex situation or problem
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psychol
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the capacity for understanding one's own or another's mental processes
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the immediate understanding of the significance of an event or action
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psychiatry the ability to understand one's own problems, sometimes used to distinguish between psychotic and neurotic disorders
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of insight
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English; in- 1 ( def. ) + sight ( def. )
Explanation
When you have an insight, you have a feeling or emotion or thought that helps you to know something essential about a person or thing. Insight isn't based on hard facts or evidence. And it doesn't have anything to do with using your senses such as sight or smell. When you gain insight, you are using your intuition, or sixth sense. Insight is formed from the prefix in- plus the English word sight, so this word literally means seeing inward.
Vocabulary lists containing insight
Some Tricky Homonyms
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List 12
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Find insight on the Italian banking sector, U.K. banks and more in the latest Market Talks covering Financial Services.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
Find insight on Orange, Tencent, Advantest and more in the latest Market Talks covering Technology, Media and Telecom.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026
New research has now overturned that assumption, revealing that the artifacts are actually medieval and provide rare insight into the movement of weapons, trade, and military activity across the Mediterranean during the Late Middle Ages.
From Science Daily • Jun. 8, 2026
Find insight on Badger Infrastructure Solutions, airline fuel, oil futures and more in the latest Market Talks covering Energy and Utilities.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026
“Just because one does not see something, that does not mean it isn’t there,” the lady replied, in an accidental moment of insight.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
