- 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.
But consistent with his claim that he has always “had an intuitive and uncanny ability to help others with interpersonal problems,” the approach of “The 25th Hour” is more instinctual than evidence-based.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 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
“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
His technical skill was instinctual and his style was unmatched — up until this point, scratching was mostly an East Coast thing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025
Mendel, as we shall see, was an instinctual gardener—a breeder of plants, a counter of seeds, an isolator of traits; Darwin was a garden digger—a classifier of plants, an organizer of specimens, a taxonomist.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
