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直觉 (zhí jué) — intuition

Definition

直觉 is a felt sense or 'gut feeling' about what is right or likely, drawn from experience rather than evidence. Unlike 本能 (a fixed biological instinct) or 预感 (a premonition about a specific future event), 直觉 is a broader, reasoning-adjacent judgment.

noun
intuition

Examples

  • 直觉，。
    Bàn àn bù néng zhī kào zhí jué, hái xū yào zhèng jù.
    Solving a case cannot rely only on intuition; evidence is also needed.
  • 直觉。
    Tā de zhí jué gào sù tā zhè jiàn shì méi nà me jiǎn dān.
    His intuition told him this matter wasn't that simple.
  • ，，直觉。
    Zuò jué dìng shí, wǒ zǒng shì yí bàn kào fēn xī, yí bàn kào zhí jué.
    When making decisions, I always rely half on analysis and half on intuition.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

直zhídirect
觉juéperceive

直 means direct, and 觉 means perception or sensing; together they denote direct perception, or intuition.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The earliest form of 直 pairs 目, an eye, with an unclear stroke 丨.

Open 直 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 覺; 觉 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
見見jiànsee
Sound part声符shēngfú
𦥯
𦥯𦥯覺jué
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 覺 pairs 見, a part that means see, with 𦥯, a part that gives the sound; simplified 觉 is a later abbreviation.

Open 觉 →
Appears in
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