Word.ws English Dictionary

intuit

Syllables: in·tu·itUK/ɪnˈtjuːɪt//ɪnˈtuɪt/

intuit verb: to know intuitively or by immediate perception.

Verb

intuit (third-person singular simple present intuits, present participle intuiting, simple past and past participle intuited)

  1. (ambitransitive) To know intuitively or by immediate perception.
    • Accordingly ſome have been pleaſed to name the complex of the phaenomena, so far as it is intuited i.e. apprehended immediately, the ſenſual world, but ſo far as its connection is thought according to univerſal laws of understanding, the intellectual world.1797, Emmanuel Kant; James Sigismund Beck [i.e., Jakob Sigismund Beck], “The Translator’s Preface”, in The Principles of Critical Philosophy, Selected from the Works of Emmanuel Kant Member of the...
    • The first principles of every science are innate, or native to the mind, only in the sense that such is its nature, that it directly intuits them, a priori, as necessary and absolute truths, independently of the affirmations of sense, experience, or any discursive proof.1856, Hubbard Winslow, “First Principles”, in Elements of Moral Philosophy; Analytical, Synthetical, and Practical, New York, N.Y.; London: D. Appleton and Company, →OCLC, footnote, page 298

Examples of intuit in a sentence

  • Can the method [Henri Bergson's doctrine of intuition] be taught and learned and practised?1922, A[rthur] A[ston] Luce, “The Method of Intuition”, in Bergson’s Doctrine of Intuition: The Donnellan Lectures for 1921, London...
  • And Mr Biswas knew for sure then, what he had intuited and dismissed: Bhandat was deaf.1961, V[idiadhar] S[urajprasad] Naipaul, “Among the Readers and Learners”, in A House for Mr Biswas, Russell edition, London: André...

Forms of intuit

third-person singular presentintuits
present participleintuiting
past participleintuited
pastintuited

Past tense of intuit: intuited

Origin of intuit

A back-formation from intuition and intuitive; compare Latin intuitus (“observed; considered”), perfect participle of intueor (“to look at, upon or towards; to observe, regard; to consider, contemplate”), from in- (“in, inside”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁én (“in”)) + tueor (“to look or gaze at”). Related to tuition, tutor.

Questions about intuit

What does intuit mean?
Intuit means to know intuitively or by immediate perception.
How do you use intuit in a sentence?
Can the method [Henri Bergson's doctrine of intuition] be taught and learned and practised?
What part of speech is intuit?
Intuit is a verb.
How do you pronounce intuit?
Intuit is pronounced /ɪnˈtjuːɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of intuit?
The past tense of intuit is intuited.

Words near intuit in the dictionary

  1. intubators
  2. intube
  3. intubed
  4. intubes
  5. intubing
  6. intuit
  7. intuitable
  8. intuited
  9. intuiter
  10. intuiters
  11. intuiting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: intuit (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-intuit.ogg.

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