Instinctiveness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The attribute of responding through innate impulses and natural reflexes without deliberate thought
2. The nature of acting based on automatic urges and unlearned behaviors rather than through reasoned decision-making
3. The characteristic of behaving according to inherent, natural impulses rather than conscious reasoning

Etymology: "Instinctiveness" is simply "instinctive" with the suffix "-ness" attached, the common English ending that turns an adjective into a noun for a quality or state. "Instinctive" itself comes from the Latin "instinctus," meaning an impulse or urge, from "instinguere," to incite or urge on. So the noun names the quality of behaving by impulse rather than by deliberate reasoning. The word is a plain formation of this kind, with no notable story attached to its coinage.

Synonyms: intuition, innateness

Antonyms: learned behavior