Perception definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

View all »
Definitions (20)

American Heritage Dictionary (6)

noun The process, act, or faculty of perceiving.
noun The effect or product of perceiving.
noun Psychology Recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based chiefly on memory.

3 more from this dictionary »

Century Dictionary (8)

Originally, and most commonly down to the middle of the eighteenth century, cognition; thought and sense in general, whether the faculty, the operation, or the resulting idea. Most psychologists since Plato had made two departments of mental action, the orectic and the speculative; the latter was called perception, but it did not include belief founded on testimony. This use of the word is now uncommon in technical language. This experiment discoverethe perception in plants, to move towards that which should comfort them, though at a distance. Bacon. [The Hobbesians] stoutly contending that we have not the perception of anything but the phantasms of material objects, and of sensible words or marks, which we make to stand for such objects. Dr. H. More, Immortality of Soul. The two great and principal actions of the mind, … perception, or thinking, and volition, or willing. Locke, Human Understanding, II. vi 2. All the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into two distinct kinds, which I shall call impressions and ideas. Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, I. i. 1.
The mental faculty, operation, or resulting construction of the imagination, of gaining knowledge by virtue of a real action of an object upon the mind. It includes the first sensation, its objectification, its location, its intuitive assimilation of ideas already in the mind—in short, all the knowledge that is acquired involuntarily without our being aware of any process, and which seems to be directly given by sense. Perception may be internal or external. Perception … being the first step and degree toward knowledge, and the inlet of all the materials of it. Locke, Human Understanding, II. ix. 15. Perception is most properly applied to the evidence we have of external objects by our senses. Reid, Intellectual Powers, I. i. Perception is a complex mental act or process. More particularly, perception is that process by which the mind, after discriminating and identifying a sense-impression (simple or complex), supplements it by an accompaniment or escort of revived sensations, the whole aggregate of actual and revived sensations being solidified or “integrated” into the form of a percept—that is, an apparently immediate apprehension or cognition of an object now present in a particular locality or region of space. J. Sully, Outlines of Psychol., p. 152. The manner in which the constituent elements in a perception are combined differs materially from what is strictly to be called the association of ideas. To realize this difference we need only to observe first how the sight of a suit of polished armour, for example, instantly reinstates and steadily maintains all that we retain of former sensations of its hardness and smoothness and coldness, and then to observe how this same sight gradually calls up ideas now of tournaments, now of crusades, and so through all the changing imagery of romance. J. Ward, Encyc. Brit., XX. 57.
An immediate judgment founded on sense or other real action of the object upon the mind, more or less analogous to what takes place in vision. Thus, we are said to recognize our friends by perception. Also, mathematical, esthetic, and moral judgments founded on direct observation of imaginary or ideal objects are called perceptions. It is admitted on all sides that the perception of an object necessarily implies the recognition of the object as this or that, as like certain objects, and as unlike certain other objects. Every act of perception, therefore, involves classification. J. Fiske, Cosmic Philos., II. 107. Her physical organization, being at once delicate and healthy, gave her a perception, operating with almost the effect of a spiritual medium, that somebody was near at hand. Hawthorne, Seven Gables, vi. A great method is always within the perception of many before it is within the grasp of one. De Morgan. Perhaps the quality specially needed for drawing the right conclusion from the facts, when one has got them, is best called perception, delicacy of perception. M. Arnold, Literature and Dogma, Preface. The members of this committee have been gathering evidence on this obscure but important question of what may be called supersensuous perception. Proc. Soc. Psych. Research, I. 13.

5 more from this dictionary »

View all »
Examples (50)

Raphael noted that for many, the perception is the crisis is over - you just take a pill and move on. — pridesource.com/Between The Lines News
Remember, a perception is always true in the mind of the perceiver; if you think sunsets are depressing, there's little I can say or do to convince you otherwise. — Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz
"Your perception is our biggest disability," noted Danielle White, a Director at the public service announcements last year and is an ongoing theme. — Vancouver Blog Miss 604 by Rebecca Bollwitt
Subsidiary to this perception was the unspoken assumption that these men, while understanding the issues of labor, were essentially reactionary when it came to issues of race, gender and culture. — Latest entries from edstrong.blog-city.com
Lending further credence to the perception was the fact that Dr Teng decided to contest against Chia for the Penang state Gerakan chairman's post.

More examples »

Add a related word »
Related

Used in the Same Context

understanding · consciousness · conception · awareness · intelligence · appreciation · sense · intuition · observation · comprehension · representation · imagination

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English percepcioun, from Old French percepcion, from Latin perceptiō, perceptiōn-, from perceptus, past participle of percipere, to perceive; see perceive.

Century Dictionary (1)

from French perception = Spanish percepcion = Portuguese percepção = Italian percezione, from Latin perceptio(n-), a receiving or collecting, perception, comprehension, from percipere, past participle perceptus, obtain, perceive: see perceive.

perception

View all »
Definitions (20)

American Heritage Dictionary (6)

Century Dictionary (8)

GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

WordNet (5)

Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

Tags

Stats

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the Same Context

Word Family

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Century Dictionary (1)

Pronunciations
Record your own »

Charts

Recently looked up

Recent Favorites

Recent Pronunciations

perception

View all » Definitions (20)

View all » Examples (50)

Tags

Stats

stop updating On Twitter

Photos from

Add a related word » Related

synonyms:

synonyms:

Etymologies (2)

Pronunciations Record your own »

Charts

Recently looked up

Recent Favorites

Recent Pronunciations

View all »
Definitions (20)

View all »
Examples (50)

stop updating
On Twitter

Add a related word »
Related

Pronunciations
Record your own »