instinctivein‧stinc‧tive /ɪnˈstɪŋktɪv/ ●○○ adjective 
Examples
a mother’s instinctive love—instinctively adverb
ExamplesEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
Thesaurus- an instinctive sense of style
- He's considered a smart, instinctive politician.
- His instinctive reaction was to duck when he heard the shot, even though he knew it was pointless.
- White jazz seemed old and intellectual, whereas black jazz was vital, swinging, instinctive.
Longman Language Activatorusing instinct rather than knowledge► instinctive
Collocations based on instinct rather than on knowledge or thought: · He's considered a smart, instinctive politician.· His instinctive reaction was to duck when he heard the shot, even though he knew it was pointless.· White jazz seemed old and intellectual, whereas black jazz was vital, swinging, instinctive.
► intuitive an intuitive understanding, judgement, or idea is completely based on feelings, not on facts or reasons, but is still correct: · Great novelists have an intuitive understanding of the workings of human emotions.· She had an intuitive ability to size up people and their capabilities.· Women are supposed to be more intuitive than men, but I don't know if that's true.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES► somebody’s instinctive reaction
based on instinct and not involving thought: (=what they do immediately, before thinking)· Often your instinctive reaction is to blame someone else.
► a primal/instinctive/basic/natural urge (=a natural urge that all people have)· Every animal has an instinctive urge to survive.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN► feeling· At best, they have an instinctive feeling for what will please people and make them like the product.· Thus a parent's moral duty to protect his or her children is grounded in instinctive feelings proper to our species.· Added to that is her instinctive feeling for people - what to do and say that will please them most.· She had dismissed the instinctive feeling before, but it was still there, and Glyn had merely heightened it.
► reaction· Our instinctive reactions seem to be rooted in the past and they are not always appropriate to twentieth-century living.· This instinctive reaction is independent of our intellect; the reaction does not depend on knowledge or intellectual assessment of risk.· But pure, instinctive reaction moves his body out of harm's way.· It is difficult to prevent this sort of instinctive reaction.· It was an instinctive reaction in defence of my guest, but I felt uncomfortable about it afterwards.· As a practising novelist, my instinctive reaction is to repudiate the deconstructionist position.· The crying baby is being expressive, although her cries are not really language at all, but instinctive reactions to the environment.
► response· Capitalists resisted, which was an instinctive response, but also a rational one.· That little bit of table-turning on Bob had been an instinctive response.· They are, as l have argued earlier in this chapter, instinctive responses to the pre-linguistic prototypical behaviour of animals.· But his instinctive response is direct.
a mother’s instinctive love—instinctively adverb