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Instinct vs Emotion - What's the difference?

instinct | emotion |

As nouns the difference between instinct and emotion

is that instinct is a natural or inherent impulse or behaviour while emotion is a person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data.

As an adjective instinct

is imbued, charged ({{term|with}} something).

instinct

English

(wikipedia instinct)

Noun

  • A natural or inherent impulse or behaviour.
    • Many animals fear fire by instinct .
  • * Shakespeare
    • By a divine instinct , men's minds mistrust / Ensuing dangers.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1921 , title= , author=Bertrand Russell , passage=In spite of these qualifications, the broad distinction between instinct and habit is undeniable. To take extreme cases, every animal at birth can take food by instinct, before it has had opportunity to learn; on the other hand, no one can ride a bicycle by instinct, though, after learning, the necessary movements become just as automatic as if they were instinctive.}}
  • An intuitive reaction not based on rational conscious thought.
    • an instinct''' for order; to be modest by '''instinct
    Debbie's instinct was to distrust John.

    Derived terms

    * instinctively * instinctive

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (archaic) Imbued, charged ((with) something).
  • * Milton
    • The chariot of paternal deity / Itself instinct with spirit, but convoyed / By four cherubic shapes.
  • * Brougham
    • a noble performance, instinct with sound principle
  • * 1928 , (HP Lovecraft), ‘The Call of Cthulhu’:
    • This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence, and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable characters.

    External links

    * * ----

    emotion

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia emotion) (en noun)
  • A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data.
  • * , chapter=5
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.}}
  • A reaction by an non-human organism with behavioral and physiological elements similar to a person's response.

    • Derived terms

    * emotionable * emotional

    Synonyms

    * (sense, person's internal state of being) feeling, affect