sentience

English

WOTD – 6 November 2007

Etymology

From sentient, from Latin sentiēns, present participle of sentiō (“feel, sense”). Confer with sentence, its equivalent formation from Classic Latin sententia (for *sentientia).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛn.ʃəns/, /ˈsɛn.ʃi.əns/, /ˈsɛn.ti.əns/

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Noun

sentience (usually uncountable, plural sentiences)

1. The state or quality of being sentient; possession of consciousness or sensory awareness.
   • 1903, Bram Stoker, chapter 5, in The Jewel of Seven Stars:

     [T]he shadows […] presently began to seem, as on last night, to have a sentience of their own.

   • 2007 December 28, Alexandra Silver, “Did This Tiger Hold a Grudge?”, in Time‎^[1]:

     The science of animal sentience is far from a firm one; there's no way of knowing exactly what any animal is feeling.

Related terms

• sentiency
• sentient
• pansentience

Translations

state or quality of being sentient

• Bulgarian: усещане (bg) n (useštane)
• French: conscience (fr) f
• German: Empfindungsvermögen (de) n
• Polish: świadomość (pl) f
• Romanian: conștiință (ro) f
• Spanish: conciencia (es) f, sensibilidad (es) f

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