Intuitive

How to spell intuitive

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce intuitive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does intuitive mean?

1. adjectiveUnderstood or known instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning.

Intuitive in a sentence

• The new software has an intuitive layout that staff learned in minutes.

• She had an intuitive sense of which clients would pay late.

Where does intuitive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb intueri, which meant 'to look at, gaze upon, or consider carefully', built from the prefix in- ('in, upon') and tueri ('to watch, look at, or guard'). Medieval Latin developed the form intuitivus to describe knowledge gained by direct mental 'looking' rather than by reasoning step by step. English borrowed it in the late 1500s, at first in philosophical and theological writing, to mean understanding grasped immediately, as if simply seen. The same tueri root that gives us the inner 'looking' here also lies behind 'tutor' and 'tuition', words about watching over and guarding a learner. The spelling trap sits in that buried -tui- sequence: the unstressed vowels blur in speech, so writers must remember the t, u, i order that the original 'looking' root preserves.

How the word is built

• in- (in, upon)
• tuit (from Latin tueri: to look at, watch over)
• -ive (adjective suffix: tending to)