hardwired
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“Hardwired” is often used loosely to refer to functions that are innate and unlearned in living systems: “The ability to perceive objects in a certain way appears to be hardwired into the brains of mammals.”
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.
Many researchers believe this trait is hardwired into our brains for evolutionary reasons.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 24, 2025
Some are hardwired to pitch in; their hands feel itchy if they’re not chopping something.
From Salon • Nov. 25, 2025
Expectations of a rate cut on Wednesday had been so hardwired in markets that the focus had already turned to the central bank’s final meeting of the year in December.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 29, 2025
The men and women I worked with at both DOJ and the FBI are sort of hardwired to do the right thing for the right reasons, in the right way.
From Slate • Dec. 9, 2024
He was hardwired to be a leader and set a good example.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
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.
