Innate Meaning
/ɪˈneɪt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjInborn; existing or having existed since birth.
adjOriginating in, or derived from, the constitution of the intellect, as opposed to acquired from experience.
Sentence Examples
Seen close-up, things have a way of showing their defects, their innate ugliness.
Generosity is innate in some people.
Gauss had an innate talent for mathematical problems.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The child showed an ____ talent for music from a very young age.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She has an ____ talent for music and could play the piano well before she was five years old.
Word Origin & History
The adjective is first attested in the 1420s, the verb in 1602; from Middle English innat(e) (“innate, inborn”), borrowed from Latin innātus (“inborn, innate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), perfect active participle of innāscor (“to be born in, grow up in”), from in- (“in, at on”) + nāscor (“to be born”); see natal, native. The verb is derived from the adjective, see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 2023 July 26, Ben Jones, “EU open access growth offers pointers for UK hopefuls”, in RAIL, number 988, page 32:
"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."
— 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:
"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[…]"
— 1690, John Locke, “No innate Principles in the Mind”, in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, book I, page 4:
"Perhaps, from an innate desire of justification, sorrow always exaggerates itself."
— 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 198:
"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."
— 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The child showed an ____ talent for music from a very young age.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She has an ____ talent for music and could play the piano well before she was five years old.