- 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.
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
“The Drama” demands discomfort before defying it, making for a sophisticated viewing experience that questions our instinctual judgments.
From Salon • Apr. 9, 2026
That’s when something tightened, a brief, instinctual clam-closing and then loosening again just as fast.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 20, 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
He would come at it with a bang, deploying his deep understanding of chemistry, mathematics, and crystallography—but more important, his instinctual grasp of model building.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
