reflexive.

1. Happening as an immediate response rather than through deliberate thought.

2. Describing a grammatical form that refers back to the subject of its clause.

3. Describing a relation that every member of its domain bears to itself.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• reflexive response
• reflexive reaction

On the page

His reflexive response was to deny the suggestion.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / human behavior. Forms: Normally non-gradable; no ordinary comparative or superlative. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: character, behavior. Commonness: moderately common.