Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use instinctive in a sentence

27 example sentences · adjective

Instinctive means related to or prompted by instinct. Example: “When approached by a stranger, Jared clenched his fists in an instinctive manner.”

Examples of instinctive by meaning

adjectiveDriven by impulse, spontaneous and without thinking.

  • When approached by a stranger, Jared clenched his fists in an instinctive manner.

More sentences with instinctive

  • Identifying as a therianthrope, Alex felt a deep, instinctive connection to wolves that shaped their sense of self and community.From the entry therianthrope
  • After the Capitol protest, this instinctive “bothsiderism” has become genuinely dangerous.2021 January 12, Jeff Sparrow, “Australian conservatives go to extraordinary lengths to deny the reality of rightwing extremism”, in The…. From the entry bothsiderism
  • Jonty's instinctive awestruck expression had been curtailed by repeated skelpings across the head by his father, Henry.2015, Irvine Welsh, A Decent Ride, page 53. From the entry skelping
  • People who are instinctive hunchers go through some such process at every decision-making point of their lives.2010, Max Gunther, The Luck Factor. From the entry hunch
  • It was instinctive dealing with the US proctocracy and its blinkered cheer-squad!2006 December 11th, “Catherine Deschevaux”, alt.quotations, “Re: Privatizing -er, Profitizing War”, Message ID. From the entry proctocracy
  • His cantankerosity is delightfully illustrated by the instinctive rhymes in “Humbug,” his first song: “St.1989 November 30, Chuck Thomas, “‘Scrooge’: Encore’s musical Christmas card”, in The Ventura County Star☆Free Press, 112th year, number 9…. From the entry cantankerosity
  • These romantics were the first explorers of the unconscious, the instinctive, the automatic.1940 September, Eugene Jolas, “Poets and Poetry: Beyond Surrealism”, in Leon Bryce Bloch, editor, The Living Age, volume 359, number 4488…. From the entry panromantic
  • Planners did not see the access routes as west Berlin's sole lifeline, which now seems instinctive to us.2012, Daniel F. Harrington, Berlin on the Brink, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 9. From the entry lifeline
  • And I'll never forget the chillingly instinctive racism.2000, Bill Oddie, Gripping Yarns, page 71. From the entry picnic
  • The first brain is the reptilian brain of the spinal cord, the brain of instinctive reflexes, the brain of the subconscious.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London…. From the entry brain
  • At the levels of imagination and belief, man acts as a sensational being, appealing to basic instinctive stimuli.1970 November 30, Pat Asher, “Case for Keeping an Open Mind”, in Subterranean Side Show, volume 2, number 8, Joliet, Ill.: Joliet Junior…. From the entry majoritive
  • In early infancy activity is entirely purposeless and unwilled, merely the instinctive movement of every part of the body.1907, Antoinette Abernethy Lamoreaux, The Unfolding Life. From the entry unwilled
  • Given the popularity of this concept, and given the clear payoff involved—little bets that can improve large decisions—you might wonder why ooching isn't more instinctive.2013, Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, New York, N.Y.: Crown Business, Crown Publishing…. From the entry ooch
  • We shook hands—though I doubt if a mere fleshly contact can express much while the self behind it is dumb with instinctive distaste.1926, Walter de la Mare, “Missing”, in Best Stories of Walter de la Mare, London: Faber and Faber, published 1942, page 175. From the entry fleshly
  • The first instinctive step in revising written matter looks to an effecting of quadrals; any later revision aims at a perfecting of the rhythma.1925, John Hubert Scott, Rhythmic prose. From the entry quadral
  • She had not married, I suppose because her standards were high, and men are cowards and with an instinctive appetite for muliebrity.1911, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Margaret in London”, in The New Machiavelli, London: John Lane; The Bodley Head […], →OCLC, book the…. From the entry muliebrity
  • The active sense of living which we all enjoy, before reflection shatters our instinctive world for us, is self-luminous and suggests no paradoxes.1909, William James, A pluralistic universe. Hibbert lectures, page 347. From the entry paradox
  • Have you found your treasure-trove, Ursula?' he asked banteringly, but looking with envious interest at the instinctive maternity of her sheltering arms.1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia…. From the entry banteringly
  • “Oh look,” the female penguin says during the gushy scenes, “the humans are engaging in instinctive behaviors that have evolutionarily led them to procreate.” “Nonsense,” says the male.2005 September 13, “Do penguin brides get cold feet?”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif., page B12, column 2. From the entry ornithologize
  • And I’m hopeless with ladies, as you know, lacking both that easygoing contempt which they find irresistible and also lacking a real instinctive trust in them.1954 July 21, Robert Bolt, “[Barbara Bray letter to RB]”, in Adrian Turner, Robert Bolt: Scenes From Two Lives, London: Hutchinson…. From the entry piss in someone's chips
  • Fred Flanagan, for two-footed kicking, marking ability and instinctive leadership, has been the best of the centre half forwards, but not much ahead of "Whopper" Lane.1953 February 21, The Sporting Globe, Melbourne, page 7, column 2. From the entry two-footed
  • Moreover, the act which is instinctive at one time or in a certain stage of development may not be instinctive at another time or in another stage.1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the…. From the entry sex act
  • Gerty was dressed simply but with the instinctive taste of a votary of Dame Fashion for she felt that there was just a might that he might be out.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 13]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 335. From the entry votary
  • When the instinctive and subconscious world of the snake is confronted in initiation, the vital force of the snake rises and floods the second brain, the midbrain, the limbic ring.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London…. From the entry midbrain
  • Instinctive drives are, in this sense, rationable; they are admitted, by the mature individual, to influence on his behavior only on condition of contributing to the going program of action.1952 December, William Ernest Hocking, “Problems of World Order in the Light of Recent Philosophical Discussion”, in The American…. From the entry rationable
  • Folk lore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal.1900 April, L[yman] Frank Baum, “Introduction”, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co.…. From the entry manifestly

Meaning of instinctive

  1. adjective Related to or prompted by instinct.
  2. adjective Driven by impulse, spontaneous and without thinking.

Full definition of instinctive

Questions about instinctive in a sentence

How do you use instinctive in a sentence?
Instinctive is used as an adjective. For example: “When approached by a stranger, Jared clenched his fists in an instinctive manner.”
What is a short sentence with instinctive?
“And I'll never forget the chillingly instinctive racism.”
What does instinctive mean?
Instinctive means related to or prompted by instinct.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: instinctive (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use instinctive in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/instinctive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.