Meaning & use
visceral
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Coming from strong instinct or gut feeling rather than careful thought.
Grammar: Usually before a noun: a visceral reaction.
Patterns
- a visceral reaction to something
She felt a visceral dislike for the man the moment he walked in.
The film's final scene provoked a visceral response from the audience.
His fear of heights is visceral, not something he can reason away.
adjectivecomparable
Raw, physical and direct in the effect it has on the senses or emotions.
Grammar: Describes art, music or writing that hits hard: visceral storytelling.
The band's visceral sound made the whole floor shake.
The photographs give a visceral sense of what life in the trenches was like.
It is a visceral, uncomfortable novel that is hard to forget.
adjectivebefore a nounmedicaltechnical
Relating to the soft organs inside the body, such as the intestines, liver and stomach.
Grammar: Used in anatomy and medicine: visceral fat.
Visceral fat builds up around the abdominal organs.
The surgeon checked for visceral injuries after the accident.
Pain from visceral organs can be hard to locate precisely.
Word forms
| comparative | more visceral |
|---|---|
| superlative | most visceral |
Common combinations
- visceral reaction
- Her visceral reaction to the news was to leave the room.
- visceral fear
- A visceral fear gripped him as the plane dropped.
- visceral fat
- Regular exercise can reduce visceral fat.
- visceral impact
- The play has a visceral impact on its viewers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- instinctive
- Instinctive means done without thinking, while visceral adds a feeling of strong physical emotion.
- gut
- Gut as an adjective, as in a gut feeling, is more casual than visceral, which is better for writing.
- raw
- Raw suggests unpolished and unfiltered, whereas visceral stresses the bodily, emotional punch.
Opposites
Word family
- viscera noun
- the soft organs inside the body
- viscerally adverb
- in a gut-level, physical way
- eviscerate verb
- to remove the internal organs of; or to weaken something badly
Commonly confused: visceral or vicarious?
visceral vs vicarious
Vicarious means felt through someone else's experience. Visceral means felt strongly inside your own body and emotions.
Practice
Which sentence uses visceral in the sense of a gut-level reaction?
Choose one answer.
A shock felt in the body is a visceral reaction. The other options describe calm, logical or routine things, which are the opposite of visceral.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “visceral”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.