Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Existing naturally or by heredity rather than being learned through experience.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Innate; implanted by nature.
  • Native; aboriginal.
  • Synonyms Innate, Inbred, etc. See inherent.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Born in or with; implanted by nature; innate; congenital.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective innate, possessed by an organism at birth
  • adjective inherited or hereditary

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective normally existing at birth
  • adjective present at birth but not necessarily hereditary; acquired during fetal development

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word inborn.

Examples

  • And all I had of thought or feeling, all that George Hammond had called my inborn poetry, came out that evening.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 76, February, 1864 Various

  • Strictly speaking, however, any trait which appears in a child at birth might be called inborn, and some writers, particularly medical men, thus refer to traits acquired in prenatal life.

    Applied Eugenics Paul Popenoe 1933

  • And the Freudians, starting out to prove that the experiences of the individual alone cause hysteria, by pushing back the time of those experiences to infancy (and lately to foetal life), have proved the contrary, that is, the inborn nature of the disease.

    The Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1916

  • Limited on all sides by conditions which they must have felt to be none of their own imposing, and finding everywhere forces working, over which they had no control, the fear which they would naturally entertain of these invisible and mighty agents, assumed, under the direction of an idea which we may perhaps call inborn and inherent in human nature, a more generous character of reverence and awe.

    Froude's Essays in Literature and History With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc James Anthony Froude 1856

  • Limited on all sides by conditions which they must have felt to be none of their own imposing, and finding everywhere forces working, over which they had no control, the fear which they would naturally entertain of these invisible and mighty agents assumed, under the direction of an idea which we may perhaps call inborn and inherent in human nature, a more generous character of reverence and awe.

    Short Studies on Great Subjects James Anthony Froude 1856

  • At the first mention of this fact the human mind naturally resists its admission: it recoils from the idea of inborn corruption; it cannot endure to have a mirror placed before it, which so clearly manifests its deformity; and it strives, from the beginning, to argue itself out of the feeling which lies so deeply ingrafted in the very consciousness of the soul.

    Private Thoughts Upon Religion and a Christian Life; to which is Added the Necessity and Advantage of Frequent Communion. Volume I. 1637-1708 1834

  • This sin is something that is inborn, which is first to be pardoned, then controlled, and finally annihilated by a new birth, by the grace of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, by the entrance on the glory of heaven, by the mighty power by which a risen Savior is to raise these vile bodies and make them like His own body.

    Weedon's Blog 2009

  • This sin is something that is inborn, which is first to be pardoned, then controlled, and finally annihilated by a new birth, by the grace of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, by the entrance on the glory of heaven, by the mighty power by which a risen Savior is to raise these vile bodies and make them like His own body.

    Weedon's Blog 2009

  • On the subject of evil, she said, in a matter-of-fact tone but without apparent rancour, that people do not change, that cruelty is "inborn" and that the Holocaust "could happen again".

    Rewind radio: Private Passions; Start the Week; Exchanges at the Frontier; Taking a Stand Kate Kellaway 2010

  • He deludes himself into believing that he has not succumbed to radiation sickness because of some kind of inborn immunity, i.e. invincibility.

    Daniel Bruno Sanz: Bad Dreams From My Grandfather 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.