innate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin innātus (“inborn”), perfect active participle of innāscor (“be born in, grow up in”), from in (“in, at on”) + nāscor (“be born”); see natal, native.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈneɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

Adjective

innate (not comparable)

1. Inborn; existing or having existed since birth.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:innate

   • 2023 July 26, Ben Jones, “EU open access growth offers pointers for UK hopefuls”, in RAIL, number 988, page 32:

     Ironically, given France's innate reluctance to permit competition at home, the first breach in Renfe's monopoly came from SNCF offshoot Ouigo España in 2021.

2. (philosophy) Originating in, or derived from, the constitution of the intellect, as opposed to acquired from experience.

   innate ideas

   • 1691 November 1, Robert South, “An Account of the Nature and Measures of Conscience”, in Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume II, Oxford: UP, published 1842, page 29:

     There is an innate light in every man, discovering to him the first lines of duty, in the common notions of good and evil, which, by cultivation and improvement, may be advanced to higher and brighter discoveries.

   • 1690, John Locke, “No innate Principles in the Mind”, in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, book I, page 4:

     It would be ſufficient to convince unprejudiced Readers of the falſeneſs of this Suppoſition, if I ſhould only ſhew (as I hope I ſhall in the following Parts of this Diſcourſe) how Men barely by the Uſe of their natural Faculties, may attain to all the Knowledge that they have, without the help of any innate Impreſſions […]

3. Instinctive; coming from instinct.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Romance and Reality. , volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, , →OCLC, page 198:

     Perhaps, from an innate desire of justification, sorrow always exaggerates itself.

   • 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1848, →OCLC:

     As if she held the clue to something secret in his breast, of the nature of which he was hardly informed himself. As if she had an innate knowledge of one jarring and discordant string within him, and her very breath could sound it.

4. (botany) Joined by the base to the very tip of a filament.

   an innate anther

Derived terms

Related terms

Collocations

Translations

See also

• a priori
• intuitive

Verb

innate (third-person singular simple present innates, present participle innating, simple past and past participle innated)

1. (obsolete) To cause to exist; to call into being.
   • 1601, John Marston, “Antonio’s Revenge”, in Tragedies and Comedies Collected into One Volume, London: A.M., published 1633, :

     I never ſaw a foole leane : the chub-fac’d fop / Shines ſleek with full cramm’d fat of happineſſe, / VVhilſt ſtudious contemplation ſucks the juice / From wiſards cheekes : who making curious ſearch / For Natures ſecrets, the firſt innating cauſe / Laughs them to ſcorne, as man doth buſy Apes / VVhen they will zany men.

   • 1655, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, “Of the dull and innated matter”, in The Philosophical and Physical Opinions, London: J. Martin and J. Allestrye, page 46:

     […] but the innating matter works not upon the dull matter, as upon a new material, for the innate matter is mixt with the dull part of matter […]

   • a. 1661, Thomas Fuller, chapter XIX, in Anglorum Speculum, or The Worthies of England, London: John Wright, Thomas Passinger, and William Thackary, published 1684, page 20:

     Here you may behold how each County is innated with a particular Genius, inclining the Natives thereof to be dextrous, ſome in one profeſſion, ſome in another […]

Translations

References

• “innate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “innate”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• annite, ante in, nanite, tannie

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /inˈna.te/
• Rhymes: -ate
• Hyphenation: in‧nà‧te

Adjective

innate

1. feminine plural of innato

Anagrams

• netina

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /inˈnaː.te/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /inˈna.te/,

Participle

innāte

1. vocative masculine singular of innātus