- a variation of hard-wired.
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.
“They’re not hardwired into some system that’s connected to the internet to an algorithmic computer center somewhere in the back of the house.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 23, 2026
“This has now been hardwired into Ukraine’s political culture.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Some are hardwired to pitch in; their hands feel itchy if they’re not chopping something.
From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2025
"It's actually good not to be as productive or active as you would be during the summer months because our bodies are biologically hardwired for rest during winter," she says.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2025
“Birds, humans, slugs—every animal—because instincts come from within the brain and the heart. They are hardwired, not learned but programmed into you.”
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.