counterintuitive

counterintuitive

See also: counter-intuitive

English

Alternative forms

• counter-intuitive

Etymology

From counter- +‎ intuitive. Coined by Noam Chomsky in 1955 as “counter-intuitive”.[1]

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkaʊntəɹɪnˈtuɪtɪv/, [ˌkʰaʊɾ̃ɚɪnˈtʰuɪɾɪv]

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Adjective

counterintuitive (comparative more counterintuitive, superlative most counterintuitive)

1. Contrary to intuition or common sense.
   • 2015, James Lambert, “Lexicography as a teaching tool: A Hong Kong case study”, in Lan Li, Jamie McKeown and Liming Liu, editors, Dictionaries and corpora: Innovations in reference science. Proceedings of ASIALEX 2015 Hong Kong, Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, page 146:

     With the students who worked on drafts in class, a number of aspects of lexicography proved challenging and counterintuitive.

Antonyms

• intuitive

Derived terms

• counterintuitively
• counterintuitiveness

Related terms

• counterintuition

Translations

contrary to intuition or common sense

Belarusian: контр-інтуіты́ўны (kontr-intuitýŭny) Danish: kontraintuitiv Dutch: contra-intuïtief Estonian: intuitsiooniga vastuolus Finnish: vaistonvastainen, intuitionvastainen, järjenvastainen, epäintuitiivinen French: contre-intuitif (fr) German: kontraintuitiv (de) Greek: αντιδιαισθητικός (el) (antidiaisthitikós) Macedonian: нездраворазумски (nezdravorazumski), нездраворазумен (nezdravorazumen) Polish: przeciwintuicyjny, nieintuicyjny Portuguese: contraintuitivo Russian: контринтуити́вный m (kontrintuitívnyj) Spanish: contraintuitivo Ukrainian: контр-інтуїти́вний (kontr-intujitývnyj)

References

1. The Oxford English Dictionary credits this to a microfilm held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology entitled Logical Stucture of Linguistic Theory