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 Drama” demands discomfort before defying it, making for a sophisticated viewing experience that questions our instinctual judgments.
From Salon • Apr. 9, 2026
They’re hard-working, action-oriented and instinctual, and they tend to learn by doing.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 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
For Kondo, what to get rid of and what to keep boiled down to a self-interrogation that was, on the surface, instinctual: “Does it spark joy?”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 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
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.
