intrinsic

comparative more intrinsic · superlative most intrinsic · alternative obsolete intrinsick

1. Innate, inherent, inseparable from the thing itself, essential.

   the intrinsic merit of an action

   3 more examples

   the intrinsic value of gold or silver

   He was better qualified than they to estimate justly the intrinsic value of Grecian philosophy and refinement.

   1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC

   The same way that the wildfire smoke from Canada recently made the sky in Boston look bright red, astronomical objects can also appear redder than their intrinsic color when you see them through a veil of dust.

   2026 August 12, Robert Simcoe, quotee, “Newly discovered "black hole star" could solve mystery of strange red dots spotted in the early universe”, in CBS News, archived from the original on 12 Aug 2026

   Synonyms: essential, inherent, innate, proper to, connate, connatural, congenital, congenite · Antonyms: extrinsic

2. anatomySituated, produced, secreted in, or coming from inside an organ, tissue, muscle or member.
3. computingBuilt-in.

   In addition to the Fortran operators that are intrinsic (built in), there may be user-defined operators in expressions.

   1997, Jeanne C. Adams, Walter S. Brainerd, Jeanne T. Martin, Brian T. Smith, Jerrold L. Wagener, Fortran 95 Handbook: Complete ISO/ANSI Reference, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 192

plural intrinsics · alternative obsolete intrinsick

1. computingA built-in function that is implemented directly by the compiler, without any intermediate call to a library.

   SIMD intrinics

   1 more example

   Crappy loops, we got them: Use vector intrinsics¶ For troublesome loops that just don't vectorize even with hints, vector intrinsics are another option.

   2021, Robert Robey, Yuliana Zamora, Parallel and High Performance Computing, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 190

2. video gamesAn ability possessed by a character and not requiring any external equipment.

   You can acquire the fire-resistance intrinsic by eating dragon meat.