Word.ws English Dictionary

innate

/ɪˈneɪt/

innate adjective: inborn; existing or having existed since birth.

Adjective

innate (not comparable)

  1. Inborn; existing or having existed since birth.
    • Ironically, given France's innate reluctance to permit competition at home, the first breach in Renfe's monopoly came from SNCF offshoot Ouigo España in 2021.2023 July 26, Ben Jones, “EU open access growth offers pointers for UK hopefuls”, in RAIL, number 988, page 32
  2. Originating in, or derived from, the constitution of the intellect, as opposed to acquired from experience.
    • innate ideas
    • There is an innate light in every man, discovering to him the first lines of duty, in the common notions of good and evil, which, by cultivation and improvement, may be advanced to higher and brighter discoveries.1691 November 1, Robert South, “An Account of the Nature and Measures of Conscience”, in Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume II, Oxford: UP, published 1842, page 29
  3. Instinctive; coming from instinct.
    • Perhaps, from an innate desire of justification, sorrow always exaggerates itself.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 198
    • As if she held the clue to something secret in his breast, of the nature of which he was hardly informed himself. As if she had an innate knowledge of one jarring and discordant string within him, and her very breath could sound it.1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC
  4. Joined by the base to the very tip of a filament.
    • an innate anther

Verb

innate (third-person singular simple present innates, present participle innating, simple past and past participle innated)

  1. (obsolete) To cause to exist; to call into being.
    • I never ſaw a foole leane : the chub-fac’d fop / Shines ſleek with full cramm’d fat of happineſſe, / VVhilſt ſtudious contemplation ſucks the juice / From wiſards cheekes : who making curious ſearch / For Natures ſecrets, the firſt innating cauſe / Laughs them to ſcorne, as man doth buſy Apes /...1601, John Marston, “Antonio’s Revenge”, in Tragedies and Comedies Collected into One Volume, London: A.M., published 1633, [Act IIII, scene i]
    • […]but the innating matter works not upon the dull matter, as upon a new material, for the innate matter is mixt with the dull part of matter[…]1655, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, “Of the dull and innated matter”, in The Philosophical and Physical Opinions, London: J. Martin and J. Allestrye, page 46

innate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

innate in Hindi

inborn
जन्मजात janmajāt

innate in Tamil

இயல்பார்ந்த, உள்ளார்ந்த, இயல்பான, உடன்பிறந்த, பிறப்பில் உற்ற, பிறவி

innate in Urdu

innate
ذاتی zātī, اصلی aslī

innate in Bengali

innate, inborn, natural
স্বভাবজাত sbôbhābjāt
More languagesFewer languages
innate in Telugu
సహజము sahajamu
innate in Malayalam
ജന്മനായുള്ള, നിസ്സർഗ്ഗജമായ, സഹജമായ, ഈഷൽ ലഗ്നം
innate in Kannada
ಸ್ವಭಾವಸಿದ್ಧ, ಸಹಜ, ಜನ್ಮಸಿದ್ಧ, ಹುಟ್ಟಿನಿಂದ ಬಂದ
innate in Punjabi
ਕੁਦਰਤੀ kudratī
innate in Odia
ପ୍ରାକୃତିକ prākrutika
innate in Sanskrit
स्वभावज svabhāvaja, नित्य nítya
innate in Arabic
فِطْرِيّ fiṭriyy
innate in Vietnamese
bẩm sinh

Examples of innate in a sentence

  • Chomsky concluded that aspects of the grammar must be innate: the universal grammar hypothesis.
  • As with all mammals, the survival instinct is innate in humans.
  • "Wallace's suggestion for overcoming the epistemological and solipsistic effects of innate selfishness is twofold."

All 40 example sentences with innate

Synonyms of innate

4 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of innate

Forms of innate

third-person singular presentinnates
present participleinnating
past participleinnated
pastinnated

Origin of innate

The adjective is first attested in the 1420s, the verb in 1602; from Middle English innat(e) (“innate, inborn”), borrowed from Latin innātus (“inborn, innate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), perfect active participle of innāscor (“to be born in, grow up in”), from in- (“in, at on”) + nāscor (“to be born”); see natal, native. The verb is derived from the adjective, see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Words formed from innate

Phrases with innate

Words that rhyme with innate

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about innate

What does innate mean?
Innate means inborn; existing or having existed since birth.
What is innate in Hindi?
Innate in Hindi is जन्मजात (janmajāt). See Innate meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is innate?
Innate can be an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce innate?
Innate is pronounced /ɪˈneɪt/.

Words near innate in the dictionary

  1. innamoratos
  2. Innaphi
  3. innard
  4. innards
  5. Innarehaa
  6. innate
  7. innate immune system
  8. innate immune systems
  9. innate immunity
  10. innated
  11. innately

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: innate (page history and authors); innate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اصلی (Urdu) (page history and authors); স্বভাবজাত (Bengali) (page history and authors); సహజము (Telugu) (page history and authors); innate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); innate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਕੁਦਰਤੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ପ୍ରାକୃତିକ (Odia) (page history and authors); नित्य (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “innate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/innate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.