sensibility

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English

Etymology

From Middle French sensibilité, and its source, Latin sēnsibilitās.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˌsɛnsɪˈbɪlɪti/

Noun

sensibility (countable and uncountable, plural sensibilities)

  1. The ability to sense, feel or perceive; responsiveness to sensory stimuli; sensitivity. [from 15th c.]
    • 2011, William Thomson, Reprint of Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism, p. 204:
      The high sensibility of the divided ring electrometer renders this test really very easy […].
  2. Emotional or artistic awareness; keen sensitivity to matters of feeling or creative expression. [from 17th c.]
    • 2015, Kathleen T. Galvin, ‎Monica Prendergast, Poetic Inquiry II, p. 266:
      By poetic ethic I am speaking about the intention to act on, and incorporate into a narrative configuration, values and beliefs that promote a poetic ontology and a poetic sensibility.
  3. (now rare, archaic) Excessive emotional awareness; the fact or quality of being overemotional. [from 18th c.]
    • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Penguin 2004, p. 106:
      People of sensibility have seldom good tempers.
  4. (in the plural) An acute awareness or feeling. [from 18th c.]
    I apologize if I offended your sensibilities, but that's the truth of the matter.
  5. (obsolete) The capacity to be perceived by the senses. [15th–17th c.]

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Further reading

  • "sensibility" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 280.
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