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Knowledge vs Instinct - What's the difference?

knowledge | instinct |

As nouns the difference between knowledge and instinct

is that knowledge is acknowledgement while instinct is a natural or inherent impulse or behaviour.

As a verb knowledge

is to confess as true; to acknowledge.

As a proper noun Knowledge

is a course of study which must be completed by prospective London taxi drivers; consists of 320 routes through central London and many significant places.

As an adjective instinct is

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

knowledge

Alternative forms

* (obsolete) knolege, knowlage, knowleche, knowledg, knowlege, knowliche, knowlych, knowlech * knaulege, knaulage, knawlage * knoleche, knoleige, knowlache, knolych * knawlache

Noun

(en-noun)
  • (obsolete) Acknowledgement.
  • The fact of knowing about something; general understanding or familiarity with a subject, place, situation etc.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The machine of a new soul , passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.}}
  • Awareness of a particular fact or situation; a state of having been informed or made aware of something.
  • * 1813 , (Jane Austen), (Pride and Prejudice) :
  • He had always intended to visit him, though to the last always assuring his wife that he should not go; and till the evening after the visit was paid she had no knowledge of it.
  • Intellectual understanding; the state of appreciating truth or information.
  • Familiarity or understanding of a particular skill, branch of learning etc.
  • * 1573 , George Gascoigne, "The Adventures of Master F.J.", An Anthology of Elizabethan Prose Fiction :
  • Every time that he had knowledge of her he would leave, either in the bed, or in her cushion-cloth, or by her looking-glass, or in some place where she must needs find it, a piece of money.
  • (obsolete) Information or intelligence about something; notice.
  • * 1580 , Edward Hayes, "Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland", Voyages and Travels Ancient and Modern , ed. Charles W Eliot, Cosimo 2005, p. 280:
  • Item, if any ship be in danger, every man to bear towards her, answering her with one light for a short time, and so to put it out again; thereby to give knowledge that they have seen her token.
  • The total of what is known; all information and products of learning.
  • (countable) Something that can be known; a branch of learning; a piece of information; a science.
  • *, II.12:
  • *:he weakened his braines much, as all men doe, who over nicely and greedily will search out those knowledges , which hang not for their mowing, nor pertaine unto them.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • There is a great difference in the delivery of the mathematics, which are the most abstracted of knowledges .
  • (obsolete) Notice, awareness.
  • * 1611 , The Bible, Authorized Version, Ruth II.10:
  • Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
  • (UK, informal) The deep familiarity with certain routes and places of interest required by taxicab drivers working in London, England.
  • * Malcolm Bobbitt, Taxi! - The Story of the London Cab
  • There is only one sure way to memorise the runs and that is to follow them, either on foot, cycle or motor cycle; hence, the familiar sight of would-be cabbies learning the knowledge during evenings and weekends.

    Quotations

    * 1996 , Jan Jindy Pettman, Worlding Women: A feminist international politics , pages ix-x: *: There are by now many feminisms (Tong, 1989; Humm, 1992)..

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often used with “knowledge”: extensive, deep, superficial, theoretical, practical, useful, working, encyclopedic, public, private, scientific, tacit, explicit, general, specialized, special, broad, declarative, procedural, innate, etc.

    Derived terms

    (terms derived from knowledge) * acknowledge * background knowledge * carnal knowledge * common knowledge * foreknowledge * general knowledge * interknowledge * knowledgeable or knowledgable * knowledge base * knowledge domain * knowledge engineer * knowledge is power * knowledge management * knowledge worker * metaknowledge * prior knowledge * protoknowledge * public knowledge * scientific knowledge * self-knowledge * sphere of knowledge * theory of knowledge * traditional knowledge * tree of knowledge * working knowledge * zero-knowledge proof

    Synonyms

    * awareness * cognizance * * knowingness * learning

    Antonyms

    * ignorance

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To confess as true; to acknowledge.
  • * 1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 3:
  • Then went oute to hym Jerusalem, and all Jury, and all the region rounde aboute Jordan, and were baptised of hym in Jordan, knoledging their synnes.

    See also

    * data * erudition * information * know-how * perception * wisdom

    Statistics

    *

    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.