different between instinctive vs unconscious

English

Etymology

instinct +? -ive

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?st??kt?v/

Adjective

instinctive (comparative more instinctive, superlative most instinctive)

1. Related to or prompted by instinct.
2. Driven by impulse, spontaneous and without thinking.

Derived terms

• instinctively

Translations

French

Adjective

instinctive

1. feminine singular of instinctif

English

Etymology

un- +? conscious

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??n?k?n??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??n?k?n??s/
• Hyphenation: un?con?scious

Adjective

unconscious (comparative more unconscious, superlative most unconscious)

1. Not awake; having no awareness.

   After the anesthetist administered the general anesthetic the patient was unconscious.

2. Without directed thought or awareness.

   My sudden fright was an unconscious response.

   • 1884, Margaret Oliphant, The Wizard's Son

     It was intolerable, he felt, to sit and eat in presence of that silent figure partly turned away from him, jotting down the different amounts on a bit of paper, and absorbed in that occupation as if unconscious of his presence.

3. (sports) engaged in skilled performance without conscious control.
   • 1999, Joseph Leininger, Terry Whalin, Lessons from the Pit: A Successful Veteran of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, page 10

     "I was unconscious," the basketball player gushes. "It seemed like everything I threw up toward the basket went straight in."

Synonyms

• (not awake; having no awareness): insentient, oblivious, out of it, out on one's feet, unaware, down for the count, lost to the world
• (skilled performance without conscious control): in the zone, on a roll

Translations

Noun

unconscious (plural unconsciouses)

1. (psychology) Unconscious mind

Derived terms

• collective unconscious

Translations

Further reading

• "unconscious" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 320.