instinct

\ɛ̃s.tɛ̃\

/\ɛ̃s.tɛ̃\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“instinct” has 13 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #7,197. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#7,197
frequency rank, French
3,561
“I” headwords
13
tracked misspellings
6
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mouvement intérieur qui est naturel aux animaux et qui les fait agir sans le secours de la réflexion pour accomplir des actes conformes à leur espèce et adaptés à leurs besoins.

Corpus desk

Index FR-instinct · instinct · French

instinct · rank #7,197 · 13 variants · 6 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #7,197
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 13 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,561
  • PHOTO-FINISH instances

Nearest frequency peer: instances (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « instinct »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « instinct » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

instinct vs instit
75% similar
instinct vs institut
75% similar
instinct vs instincts
89% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for instinct
PropertyValue
Headwordinstinct
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɛ̃s.tɛ̃\
Letters8
Frequency rank#7,197
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « instinct »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.instinctse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « instances » (#7,196), « intellectuels » (#7,198), « implication » (#7,195). Parmi 3,561 lemmes en « I », « instinct » est au #7,197. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 13 spelling variants around instinct (IPA \ɛ̃s.tɛ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #7,197 among 3,561 “I” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for instinct, with forms such as "innstinct", "insitnct", and "insstinct". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "instit", "institut", "instincts", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is instinct, spelled I-N-S-T-I-N-C-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mouvement intérieur qui est naturel aux animaux et qui les fait agir sans le secours de la réflexion pour accomplir des actes conformes à leur espèce et adaptés à leurs besoins.
  2. 2
    Mouvement intérieur et involontaire auquel on attribue les actes non réfléchis, les sentiments indélibérés ou, par extension, une grande aptitude, une forte propension à quelque chose, en parlant de l’homme.
  3. 3
    Penchant spontané.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how instinct appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Négligés par les béhavioristes, l’instinct, la pensée, la perception, la complexité des motivations réinterfèrent dans l’étude des comportements et de l’apprentissage qui en dépend.
  2. Mais aussi bien et, du moins jusqu’à ce jour, parfois mieux que l’homme, [le termite] a su tirer parti du seul avantage qu’une marâtre oublieuse, curieuse ou simplement indifférente ait bien voulu lui laisser : une petite force qu’on ne voit pas, que chez lui nous appelons l’instinct, et chez nous, sans qu’on sache pourquoi, l’intelligence.

This word in other languages

instinct(English)instinto(Español)Instinkt(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • innstinct
  • insitnct
  • insstinct
  • insticnt
  • instincct
  • instinctt
  • instinnct
  • instintc
  • instnict
  • insttinct
  • intsinct
  • isntinct
  • nistinct

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of instinct - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

innstinct1insitnct2insstinct1insticnt2instincct1instinctt1instinnct1instintc2
Edit distance from "instinct"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "instinct"?
"instinct" is spelled I-N-S-T-I-N-C-T. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛ̃s.tɛ̃\.
What does "instinct" mean?
As a noun, "instinct" means: Mouvement intérieur qui est naturel aux animaux et qui les fait agir sans le secours de la réflexion pour accomplir des actes conformes à leur espèce et adaptés à leurs besoins.
What words are commonly confused with "instinct"?
"instinct" is commonly confused with "instit", "institut", "instincts". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "instinct"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "instinct" is \ɛ̃s.tɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "instinct" come from?
"instinct" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "instinct", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

génocide#7,190poétique#7,220prestige#7,221croyance#7,171

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (13 here; floor ≥5).

hautement13 variantsoccidental13 variantsdominante13 variantsprotégés13 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list