SENTIENCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sentience mean? 

• SENTIENCE (noun)
  The noun SENTIENCE has 3 senses:

1. state of elementary or undifferentiated consciousness

2. the faculty through which the external world is apprehended

3. the readiness to perceive sensations; elementary or undifferentiated consciousness

  Familiarity information: SENTIENCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SENTIENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

State of elementary or undifferentiated consciousness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

awareness; sentience

Context example:

the crash intruded on his awareness

Hypernyms ("sentience" is a kind of...):

consciousness (an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation)

Derivation:

sentient (endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The faculty through which the external world is apprehended

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

sensation; sense; sensory faculty; sentience; sentiency

Context example:

in the dark he had to depend on touch and on his senses of smell and hearing

Hypernyms ("sentience" is a kind of...):

faculty; mental faculty; module (one of the inherent cognitive or perceptual powers of the mind)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sentience"):

modality; sense modality; sensory system (a particular sense)

sensibility; sensitiveness; sensitivity ((physiology) responsiveness to external stimuli; the faculty of sensation)

Derivation:

sentient (consciously perceiving)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The readiness to perceive sensations; elementary or undifferentiated consciousness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

gave sentience to slugs and newts

Hypernyms ("sentience" is a kind of...):

aliveness; animateness; liveness (the property of being animated; having animal life as distinguished from plant life)

Attribute:

animate; sentient (endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness)

insensate; insentient (devoid of feeling and consciousness and animation)

Antonym:

insentience (lacking consciousness or ability to perceive sensations)

Derivation:

sentient (consciously perceiving)

 Context examples 

Not a thing seemed to be stirring, but all to be grim and fixed as death or fate; so that a thin streak of white mist, that crept with almost imperceptible slowness across the grass towards the house, seemed to have a sentience and a vitality of its own.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)