- a variation of instinctive.
instinctual
Americanadjective
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.
The displaced feeling that a process we’ve always been told is natural and instinctual is anything but.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
Even those with lives, careers and families are fundamentally lost, snared between their pursuit of personal justice and instinctual self-preservation.
From Salon ● May 19, 2026
I’m a really instinctual person and I get feelings — I feel like I’m a little psychic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026
“Yermak was more a sort of instinctual negotiator…Budanov has his instincts, but I think he’s going to be much more punctilious about the preparations.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
The pain from the blow on his shin made him cry out, and he curled up, an instinctual reaction, an attempt to make his body as small as possible.
From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro
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.
