Meaning & use
innate needs
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Meaning
nounplural
basic requirements that a person or animal is born with, not learned from experience.
Grammar: Always plural in this sense; a single one is an 'innate need'.
Patterns
- innate needs for something
- satisfy innate needs
- meet innate needs
Psychologists study how infants express their innate needs.
Food and shelter are innate needs for survival.
The theory suggests that humans have innate needs for social connection.
Common combinations
- innate needs for
- The baby's innate needs for warmth and food are met by her parents.
- satisfy innate needs
- Good parenting helps satisfy a child's innate needs.
- basic innate needs
- Basic innate needs include hunger and thirst.
- human innate needs
- Human innate needs go beyond physical survival.
Synonyms and how they differ
- inborn needs
- Very similar, but 'inborn' is less common in academic writing than 'innate'.
- instinctive needs
- Focuses on automatic behavior rather than needs present from birth.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: innate needs or inmate?
innate needs vs inmate
A person kept in a prison or hospital; completely different meaning.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'innate needs' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The plural 'innate needs' is standard when talking about several basic requirements. 'Innate need' (singular) is possible for one specific need, but 'needs' fits the general context here. 'Needs for' would require a following noun, e.g., 'needs for food'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “innate needs”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.