intuition
Knowledge without reasoning
Intuition is knowledge or understanding that arrives without conscious reasoning—a sense of something that bypasses deliberate thought.
You might have an intuition that something is wrong, or trust your intuition when making decisions: My intuition told me not to take the job.
The word often implies a kind of direct perception, as if truth were felt rather than figured out.
Some treat intuition as mystical; others see it as pattern recognition operating below awareness.
Arising from deep instinct
- hunchUnproven inner sense
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
- inklingSlight, uncertain awareness
- feelingSensed inner state
suspicion · presentiment · foreboding · impulse · instinctive · unconscious · somatic · reaction
Extrasensory perception ability
- ESPParanormal mental faculty
- extrasensoryBeyond ordinary perception
- precognitionParanormal future awareness
- telepathyDirect mental communication
premonition · psychic · medium · divination · oracle · seer · prophecy · supernatural
Sudden profound insight
- realizationGrasping what's true
- understandingMental comprehension of something
- clarityState of being understandable
- discernmentKeen perception and judgment
revelation · grasp · perceptiveness · perspicacity · penetration · acumen · apprehension · cognizance
Existing since birth
- primalFirst in origin
- survivalRemaining alive against odds
- instinctualDriven by natural impulse
- reflexInvoluntary stimulus response
drive · inborn · hardwired · biological · natural · unlearned · adaptive · fight-or-flight
Understood without being stated
- subconsciousBelow conscious awareness
- expertiseSkill from extensive practice
- experiencePractical knowledge from life
- judgmentReasoned decision-making capacity
know-how · heuristic · thin-slicing · holistic · gestalt · learned · automaticity
visceral
Arising from deep instinct
- hunchUnproven inner sense
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
- inklingSlight, uncertain awareness
feeling · suspicion · presentiment · foreboding · impulse · instinctive · unconscious · somatic · reaction · sense
clairvoyance
Extrasensory perception ability
- ESPParanormal mental faculty
- extrasensoryBeyond ordinary perception
- precognitionParanormal future awareness
telepathy · premonition · psychic · medium · divination · oracle · seer · prophecy · supernatural · channeling
epiphany
Sudden profound insight
- realizationGrasping what's true
- understandingMental comprehension of something
- clarityState of being understandable
discernment · revelation · grasp · perceptiveness · perspicacity · penetration · acumen · apprehension · cognizance · illumination
innate
Existing since birth
- primalFirst in origin
- survivalRemaining alive against odds
- instinctualDriven by natural impulse
reflex · drive · inborn · hardwired · biological · natural · unlearned · adaptive · fight-or-flight · self-preservation
implicit
Understood without being stated
- subconsciousBelow conscious awareness
- expertiseSkill from extensive practice
- experiencePractical knowledge from life
judgment · know-how · heuristic · thin-slicing · holistic · gestalt · learned · automaticity
- guessesguess, conjecture, supposition, speculation, surmise
- guessingguess, prediction, hypothesis, conjecture, speculation
- gut feelingsgut feeling, gut instinct, gut reaction, hunch, instinct
- instinctsinstinct, survival instinct, survival instincts, maternal instinct, gut instinct
- Mental facultieswisdom, insight, judgment, understanding, discernment
- mental statesknowledge, conscious, mood, anxious, memory
intuitionreasoning
Drawing logical conclusions
logic · analysis · deduction · calculation · deliberation
intuitionexperience
Practical knowledge from life
evidence · empirical evidence · proof · empirical data · information
- intuitive leapGrasping without reasoning through
- intuitive eatingDiet-free body-responsive eating
- intuitive designInterface requiring no instruction
- intuitive thinkingCognition through instinct
- moral intuitionImmediate ethical judgment
- intuitive understandingKnowledge felt, not learned
intuitive, intuitively, intuitions, intuitiveness, intuiting, counterintuitive, intuitionism, nonintuitive, unintuitive