intuitively

[ in-too-i-tiv-lee, -tyoo- ]

adverb

1. by means of direct perception, an instinctive inner sense, or gut feeling rather than rational thought:

   They’ve been married so long, they know intuitively how best to support each other.

2. in a way that is easy to understand or operate without explicit instruction:

   The website is an invaluable resource that is intuitively designed, making it a simple task to search for a suitable doctor.

Other Word Forms

• non·in·tu·i·tive·ly adverb
• qua·si-in·tu·i·tive·ly adverb
• un·in·tu·i·tive·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of intuitively¹

intuitive ( def ) + -ly

Example Sentences

As the Right’s best propagandists intuitively understand, much of the real persuasion happens before the policy debates even occur.

From Salon

I’m sure that has some effect, but they are pretty intuitively created.

From Los Angeles Times

And it makes sense, intuitively, to people that if you just try hard enough you can overcome these problems.

From Salon

"How to mute things down, and more technical things that I was maybe doing intuitively to begin with. It helped me to understand what I was already doing and then making that better."

From BBC

“It’s hard for many people to do much about climate change, but they know intuitively that removing mature trees causes great harm to the environment.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• allegedly
• ostensibly
• possibly
• probably
• supposedly