native wit

The intelligence or common sense with which one is normally born.

Noun

  1. The intelligence or common sense with which one is normally born.
    • But the most valuable parts of his performance are those which retired study and native wit cannot supply. - 1781, Samuel Johnson, “Samuel Butler”, in Lives of the Poets:
    • Nelly Kirkpatrick was a great, red-haired giant of a woman, very illiterate, but with some native wit, and good-hearted enough, I am told, when she was in her right mind. - c. 1870, Bayard Taylor, “Mrs. Strongitharm's...
    • Or we might go practically unaccompanied, relying on our native wit and good fortune to attain our ends. - 1916, H. Rider Haggard, chapter 8, in The Ivory Child:

Synonyms

good sense mother wit