insight
Americannoun
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an instance of apprehending the true nature of a thing, especially through intuitive understanding.
an insight into 18th-century life.
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penetrating mental vision or discernment; faculty of seeing into inner character or underlying truth.
- Synonyms:
- grasp, understanding, intuition, apprehension, perception
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Psychology.
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an understanding of relationships that sheds light on or helps solve a problem.
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(in psychotherapy) the recognition of sources of emotional difficulty.
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an understanding of the motivational forces behind one's actions, thoughts, or behavior; self-knowledge.
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noun
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the ability to perceive clearly or deeply; penetration
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a penetrating and often sudden understanding, as of a complex situation or problem
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psychol
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the capacity for understanding one's own or another's mental processes
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the immediate understanding of the significance of an event or action
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psychiatry the ability to understand one's own problems, sometimes used to distinguish between psychotic and neurotic disorders
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of insight
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English; in- 1 ( def. ) + sight ( def. )
Explanation
When you have an insight, you have a feeling or emotion or thought that helps you to know something essential about a person or thing. Insight isn't based on hard facts or evidence. And it doesn't have anything to do with using your senses such as sight or smell. When you gain insight, you are using your intuition, or sixth sense. Insight is formed from the prefix in- plus the English word sight, so this word literally means seeing inward.
Vocabulary lists containing insight
Some Tricky Homonyms
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List 12
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Beowulf vocabulary
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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.
Find insight on easyJet, Volkswagen, Rheinmetall and more in the latest Market Talks covering auto and transport.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 10, 2026
The People’s Insurance Claim Center, a licensed public adjuster based in South Florida, has some insight into what sometimes happens when people call insurance adjusters to their home.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 10, 2026
Weaver and her spouse also shared some emotional insight into their life since her time on the cheerleading squad came to an end several months ago.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 9, 2026
To mark the anniversary, Gervais hosted a YouTube special which shared previously untold and exclusive stories from set, and gave fans an insight into the mind of his eccentric character.
From BBC • Jul. 9, 2026
With insight and humor, Elizebeth and William had proved, once and for all, that Shakespeare’s plays contained no ciphers or codes.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
