intuitive
adjective
Did you know?
Does intuitive have anything to do with a sixth sense?
Nowadays, we often see intuitive used in contexts pertaining to technology that is easy to understand. A smartphone with an “intuitive interface” is one that doesn't need much explaining; you can usually figure out how it works as soon as you fire it up.
The related noun intuition, meanwhile, describes a feeling of knowing or understanding something without evident rational thought and inference. A parent's intuition might tell him or her that a child is in danger, even if there is no logical reason to believe so.
So does intuitive have anything to do with what is often called the sixth sense? Well, the sixth sense is defined as "a keen intuitive power." It is synonymous with ESP or extrasensory perception. As its name implies, ESP describes a purported ability to know something that cannot be known by normal use of the senses.
The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) used the term intuitive substage to refer to the stage of cognitive development when children have acquired a vast amount of knowledge but have not considered how they acquired it, so they accept it as true.
An interface is intuitive because it makes sense according to what we expect from how older interfaces are designed. A parent's intuitive sense of danger may still be prompted by subtle hints that things just aren't as they should be, even if the parent cannot identify exactly how. So while sixth sense refers to the ability to acquire knowledge from beyond the five senses, intuitive tends to apply more to knowledge absorbed through experience, even when not immediately recognized as such.
Examples of intuitive in a Sentence
Stephan Wilkinson, Popular Science, December 2002
… but most of the literature was political rather than scientific, more interested in … exalting the irrational and intuitive over the rational and quantifiable.
—Paddy Chayefsky, Artificial Paradises, (1978) 1999
Galileo had made an intuitive jump to what we now call Newton's first law of motion: a body in motion tends to remain in motion.
—Leon Lederman et al., The God Particle, 1993
She has an intuitive mind.
a doctor with an intuitive awareness of his patients' concerns
The argument makes intuitive sense.
The software has an intuitive interface.
Red Fabbri, Travel + Leisure, 1 Mar. 2025
Now, researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Imperial College London have unveiled a promising solution: a new soft prosthetic hand designed for more intuitive control.
—Kurt Knutsson, Fox News, 1 Mar. 2025
Much like a good parent is keenly aware of a young child’s mental state, when they might be flustered, and what would soothe them, having some recognition of when a friend or partner is stressed out can make tending to them more intuitive and connective.
—Erica Sloan, SELF, 28 Feb. 2025
Mercury in Cancer If you were born with Mercury in Cancer, your mind is intuitive and deeply influenced by your emotional landscape.
—Valerie Mesa, People.com, 28 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for intuitive
Cite this Entry
“Intuitive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intuitive. Accessed 10 Mar. 2025.
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