adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Contrary to intuition or common sense.

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

Adjective

1. 1
   contrary to what common sense would suggest wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

unreasonable

Antonyms

All antonyms

intuitive

Example

More examples

"It was a counterintuitive event."

Etymology

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

Related phrases

common sense

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.