Intuition

How to spell intuition

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce intuition

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does intuition mean?

1. nounThe ability to understand or know something immediately, without conscious reasoning or proof.

Intuition in a sentence

• Her intuition told her the deal was too good to be true.

• Good detectives rely on evidence as much as on intuition.

Where does intuition come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin verb intueri, meaning 'to look at, gaze upon, or consider closely', formed from the prefix in- ('upon') and tueri ('to look at or watch over'). From this came the Late Latin noun intuitio, describing a direct act of looking or contemplation, which in medieval philosophy came to mean immediate knowledge grasped without reasoning. English took the word in during the early 1400s, at first in the theological sense of a direct mental view of truth, and it broadened over the following centuries into the everyday idea of instinctive understanding. The same Latin tueri lies behind 'tutor' and 'tuition', since a tutor was originally a guardian who watched over a pupil. Remembering that buried 'tuit' (the looking part it shares with tuition) helps fix the otherwise easily slurred middle of the word.

How the word is built

• in- (in, upon)
• tuit (from Latin tueri: to look at, watch over)
• -ion (noun suffix)