Hunch

/hʌntʃ/

Meaning & Definition

noun

A feeling or guess based on intuition rather than knowledge.

I had a hunch that something was wrong.

A physical bend or curve.

He walked with a hunch, as if he were carrying a heavy weight.

verb

To bend over or to curve one's body.

She hunched over her laptop, focused on her work.

Origin unknown, possibly from Middle English 'hunch' meaning a lump or a protuberance.

hunch it

To rely on one's instincts or intuition rather than facts.

intuition

The ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.

instinct

An innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to particular stimuli.

A strong gut feeling about something.

I just had a hunch that the meeting would go well.

A sudden insight or realization.

I got a hunch about how to solve that problem.