cognition

English

Etymology

From Middle English cognicion, from Latin cognitio (“knowledge, perception, a judicial examination, trial”), from cognitus, past participle of cognoscere (“to know”), from co- (“together”) + *gnoscere, older form of noscere (“to know”); see know, and compare cognize, cognizance, cognizor, cognosce, connoisseur.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɒɡˈnɪʃ.ən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kɑɡˈnɪʃ.ən/, /kɔɡˈnɪʃ.ən/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /kɔɡˈnɪʃ.ən/
• Hyphenation: cog‧ni‧tion

Noun

cognition (countable and uncountable, plural cognitions)

1. The process of knowing, of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought and through the senses.

   Coordinate terms: thought, thinking (loosely synonymous); noesis

2. (countable) A result of a cognitive process.
3. (archaic) Knowledge; awareness.

Derived terms

• biocognition
• cognification
• cognite
• cognitional
• cognitohazard
• cognitologist
• cognitology
• commognition
• enclothed cognition
• hypocognition
• implicit cognition
• incognition
• intercognition
• intracognition
• metacognition
• miscognition
• neurocognition
• noncognition
• postcognition
• precognition
• recognition
• retrocognition

Related terms

• cognitive
• cognizant
• cognometrics
• recognize

Translations

process of knowing

• Armenian: իմացություն (hy) (imacʻutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: qavrama
• Bulgarian: позна́ние (bg) n (poznánie), зна́ние (bg) n (znánie)
• Catalan: cognició (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 認知 / 认知 (zh) (rènzhī), 認識 / 认识 (zh) (rènshi)

• Danish: kognition, erkendelse
• Finnish: kognitio (fi), tajunta (fi)
• French: connaissance (fr) f
• Galician: cognición (gl) f
• German: Kognition (de) f, Erkenntnis (de) f
• Hebrew: הכרה (he) f (hakara)
• Hindi: संज्ञान (hi) (sañjñān), बोध (hi) (bodh)
• Hungarian: megismerés (hu)
• Italian: conoscenza (it) f
• Japanese: 認知 (ja) (にんち, ninchi)
• Korean: 인지(認知) (ko) (inji)
• Lithuanian: pažinimas (lt) m
• Maori: hirikapo
• Polish: poznanie (pl) n, percepcja (pl) n
• Portuguese: cognição (pt)
• Punjabi: ਸੰਗਿਆਨ (saṅgiāna)
• Russian: позна́ние (ru) n (poznánije), восприя́тие (ru) n (vosprijátije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: спознаја

  Roman: spoznaja (sh) f

• Slovak: poznávanie
• Spanish: cognición (es) f
• Turkish: biliş (tr), sadınım
• Ukrainian: пізна́ння (uk) n (piznánnja)
• Vietnamese: nhận thức (vi)
• Welsh: gwybyddiaeth (cy) f

Further reading

• “cognition”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “cognition”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• incognito