insight
/ˈɪnsʌɪt
/noun [mass noun]
1The capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of someone or something: his mind soared to previously unattainable heights of insight...
- And as we get older our perspectives grow wider: we forget a lot but we also gain more insight into things.
- We also envisage this as a discovery kind of museum in which the villagers can gain some insight into science.
- Words leave the page and become real, and you gain rare insight into the authors, their books, and their passions.
Synonyms
intuition, perception, awareness, discernment, understanding, comprehension, apprehension, appreciation, cognizance, penetration, acumen, astuteness, perspicacity, perspicaciousness, sagacity, sageness, discrimination, judgement, shrewdness, sharpness, sharp-wittedness, acuity, acuteness, flair, breadth of view, vision, far-sightedness, prescience, imagination
informal nous, horse sense, savvy
rare sapience, arguteness
1.1 [count noun] An accurate and deep understanding: his work provides important insights into language use [mass noun]: the town offers some insight into Finnish rural life...
- Secondly, other studies often provide insights that are suggestive for one's own data.
- Einstein had deep insights into how to incorporate gravitation into relativity theory.
- Rather, in this section we pull out for the reader the key assumptions and insights offered by each.
Synonyms
understanding of, appreciation of, revelation about, illumination of;
introduction to, experience of, description of;
realization, recognition, enlightenment
informal aha moment
informal eye-opener
1.2 [mass noun] Psychiatry Awareness by a mentally ill person that their mental experiences are not based in external reality.A growing body of evidence points to the fact that for many people with serious mental illness, lack of insight is a medically based condition....
- These results suggest that preserved insight may be a protective factor that buffers mentally ill mothers.
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'inner sight, wisdom'): probably of Scandinavian and Low German origin and related to Swedish insikt, Danish indsigt, Dutch inzicht, and German Einsicht.