sentient

English

Etymology

From Latin sentiēns (“feeling, perceiving”), present active participle of sentiō.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛn.ti.ənt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛn.ʃi.ənt/, /ˈsɛn.ʃənt/

Adjective

sentient (comparative more sentient, superlative most sentient)

1. Experiencing sensation, thought, or feeling.

   Synonym: aware

   Consider fish, who are apparently sentient yet cognitively extremely primitive in comparison with humans.

   Obviously, other morally relevant considerations would apply to the case of a sentient fetus, as by acquiring sentience it acquires interests and moral status.

2. Able to consciously perceive through the use of sense faculties.

   Synonyms: sensate, aware

   Antonym: insensate

4. (loosely, chiefly science fiction) Possessing human-like awareness and intelligence.

   Synonyms: sapient; see also Thesaurus:self-aware

   • 2000 April, Bill Joy, “Why the Future Doesn't Need Us”, in Wired‎^[1]:

     While I had heard such talk before, I had always felt that sentient robots were in the realm of science fiction. But now, from someone I respected [Ray Kurzweil], I was hearing a strong argument that they were a near-term possibility.

   • 2002, André Bormanis, “Silent Enemy”, in Star Trek: Enterprise, season 1, episode 12, spoken by Jonathan Archer:

     Not even a microbe? I don't want to blow up something that could evolve into a sentient species in a couple of billion years.

   • 2022 June 14, Toby Walsh, “Labelling Google’s LaMDA chatbot as sentient is fanciful. But it’s very human to be taken in by machines”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     [Blake] Lemoine has been placed on “paid administrative leave” after publishing a transcript of conversations with LaMDA which he claims support his belief that the chatbot is sentient and comparable to a seven- or eight-year-old child. […] While Lemoine no doubt genuinely believes his claims, LaMDA is likely to be as sentient as a traffic light.

   • 2022 August 5, Cade Metz, “A.I. Is Not Sentient. Why Do People Say It Is?”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     After more than 25 years as an artificial intelligence researcher […] Dr. Goertzel knew he had finally reached the end goal: Desdemona, a machine he had built, was sentient. But a few minutes later, he realized this was nonsense.

Coordinate terms

• sapient

Derived terms

• cosentient
• hypersentient
• insentient
• nonsentient
• omnisentient
• presentient
• pseudosentient
• semisentient
• sentiently
• unsentient

Translations

experiencing sensation, perceiving, thinking, or feeling

• Arabic: حَسَّاس (ḥassās)
• Armenian: զգայուն (hy) (zgayun)
• Bulgarian: усещащ (bg) (useštašt)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 感受的

• Czech: vnímající, cítící (cs)
• Dutch: met gevoel
• Finnish: tunteva (fi)
• French: sensible (fr), doué de sensation
• German: fühlend
• Greek: αισθητηριοσυνειδησιακός m (aisthitiriosyneidisiakós), αισθητηριοσυνειδησιακή f (aisthitiriosyneidisiakí), αισθητηριοσυνειδησιακό n (aisthitiriosyneidisiakó), αισθητήριος (el) m (aisthitírios)
• Hungarian: érzó
• Italian: senziente (it) (literary)
• Japanese: 意識する (ja) (いしきする, ishiki suru), 感覚力のある (かんかくりょくのある, kankaku-ryoku no aru), 知覚する (ja) (ちかくする, chikaku suru), 敏感な (ja) (びんかんな, binkan na)
• Malay: berperasaan
• Portuguese: senciente (pt)
• Romanian: conștient (ro) m
• Russian: чу́вствующий (ru) (čúvstvujuščij), ощуща́ющий (ru) (oščuščájuščij)
• Spanish: sensible (es), con sentidos, sintiente, sentiente (DPD, Fundéu)
• Swedish: kännande
• Tagalog: lantad

able to consciously perceive through the use of sense faculties

• Arabic: عَاقِل (ar) (ʕāqil)
• Armenian: գիտակից (hy) (gitakicʻ)
• Bulgarian: съзнателен (bg) (săznatelen)
• Czech: vnímavý, schopný vnímat
• Dutch: bewust (nl)
• Finnish: tietoinen (fi)
• French: conscient (fr) m
• Greek: ευαίσθητος (el) m (evaísthitos)
• Japanese: 感覚を持つ (いしきをもつ, ishiki o motsu), 意識する (ja) (いしきする, ishiki suru), 敏感な (ja) (びんかんな)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sansende

• Polish: przytomny (pl)
• Russian: разу́мный (ru) (razúmnyj), созна́тельный (ru) (soznátelʹnyj)
• Spanish: consciente (es), sentiente (DPD, Fundéu), sintiente

science fiction: possessing human-like awareness, knowledge and intelligence

• Armenian: բանական (hy) (banakan), բանականություն ունեցող (banakanutʻyun unecʻoġ)
• Finnish: älyllinen (fi)
• French: sentient (fr) m
• Russian: разу́мный (ru) (razúmnyj)
• Spanish: sapiente (es)

See also

• conscient

Noun

sentient (plural sentients)

1. Lifeform with the capability to feel sensation, such as pain.
2. (loosely, chiefly science fiction) An intelligent, self-aware being.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sentient

   • 1965, Philip José Farmer, The Maker of Universes:

     The merpeople and the sentients who lived on the beach often hitched rides on these creatures, steering them by pressure on exposed nerve centers.

Further reading

• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2026), “sentient adj.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2026), “sentient n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.
• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “sentient”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 180–181.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈsɛn.ti.ɛnt]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsɛn.t͡si.ent]

Verb

sentient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of sentiō