Word.ws English Dictionary

instinction

instinction noun: instinct, incitement, or inspiration.

Noun

instinction

  1. (obsolete) Instinct, incitement, or inspiration.
    • And therfore Tulli in his Tusculane questyons supposeth that a poete can nat abundantly expresse verses sufficient and complete, or that his eloquence may flowe without labour wordes wel sounyng and plentuouse, without celestiall instinction, whiche is also by Plato ratified.1531, Thomas Elyot, “The seconde and thirde decay of lernyng amonge gentilmen”, in Ernest Rhys, editor, The Boke Named the Governour […] (Everyman’s Library), London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Co; New...

Origin of instinction

From Middle English instinccion, instyncyon, from Middle French instincion and its etymon Medieval Latin īnstīnctiō.

Questions about instinction

What does instinction mean?
Instinction means instinct, incitement, or inspiration.
What part of speech is instinction?
Instinction is a noun.

Words near instinction in the dictionary

  1. instimulating
  2. instimulation
  3. instimulations
  4. instinct
  5. instinct shooting
  6. instinction
  7. instinctive
  8. instinctive drift
  9. instinctively
  10. instinctiveness
  11. instinctivities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: instinction (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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