insight

See also in sight

English

Etymology

From Middle English insight, insiht (“insight, mental vision, intelligence, understanding”), from in- (from Old English) + sight, siht (“sight, vision”), or from Old English insiht (“narrative, argument, account”). Compare Dutch inzicht (“insight, awareness, view, opinion”), German Einsicht (“insight, knowledge, perception, understanding”). More at in, sight.

Pronunciation

• audio (US)

  (file)

• enPR: ĭn'sīt, IPA: /ˈɪnsaɪt/, SAMPA: /"InsaIt/

Noun

insight (plural insights)

1. A sight or view of the interior of anything; a deep inspection or view; introspection; frequently used with into.
   • 1980, Carl Sagan, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,

     The history of our study of our solar system shows us clearly that accepted and conventional ideas are often wrong, and that fundamental insights can arise from the most unexpected sources.

2. Power of acute observation and deduction; penetration; discernment; perception.
3. (marketing) Knowledge (usually derived from consumer understanding) that a company applies in order to make a product or brand perform better and be more appealing to customers
4. The act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively
5. (artificial intelligence) An extended understanding of a subject resulting from identification of relationships and behaviors within a model, context, or scenario.

Related terms

• outsight

Translations

sight of the interior; deep view; introspections

Hebrew: תובנה (he) (Tovanah) f.

Spanish: perspicacia (es) f.

power of acute observation and deduction

Dutch: inzicht (nl) n. German: Einsicht (de) f. Italian: introspezione (it), acume (it), intuito (it), discernimento (it)

Russian: ознакомление (ru) (oznakomlenie) n. Spanish: introspección (es) f.

act of apprehending inner nature of things

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

French: visibilité f., intuition f.

Spanish: introspección f., revelación f., claridad f.

External links

• insight in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• insight in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

• sight in