Based on natural feeling or behavior rather than thought or learning; something you do automatically without thinking.
From Latin 'instinctus' (driven, impelled) from 'instinguere' (to incite). The word entered English in the 1600s to describe behaviors that appeared in all members of a species without training.
Instinctive behaviors like a baby's grasp reflex or a cat's fear of water are so deeply programmed into our DNA that they appear identical across entire populations—a phenomenon that puzzled Darwin and helped prove evolution.
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