Innate means something you're born with rather than something you learn or develop later. When a quality or ability is innate, it's part of who you are from the very beginning.

Baby sea turtles have an innate ability to find the ocean moments after hatching. Nobody teaches them which direction to crawl; they just know. Birds have an innate instinct to build nests, and spiders are born knowing how to spin webs. These behaviors are innate because they come pre-programmed, built into the animal from birth.

Humans have innate qualities too. All babies are born with an innate ability to learn language. No matter where they're born or what language their parents speak, every healthy baby's brain is wired to pick up the sounds and patterns of speech. Some people seem to have innate musical talent or an innate sense of direction, though experts debate how much is truly inborn versus developed through early experiences.

Innate is the opposite of acquired, which describes things you gain through experience or practice. While you might acquire skill at basketball through years of practice, an innate sense of spatial awareness might make learning those skills easier for you than for someone else.