sensibility

capacity for feeling; responsiveness: She has a great sensibility for her patients.

Not to be confused with:

sensitivity – ability to react to stimuli: sensitivity to light

sen·si·bil·i·ty

(sĕn′sə-bĭl′ĭ-tē)

n. pl. sen·si·bil·i·ties

1. The ability to perceive stimuli: lost sensibility in a toe.

2. often sensibilities

a. Mental or emotional responsiveness, especially in being offended or in having one's feelings hurt: "The earthy humor of many of the ballads deeply offended her sensibilities" (Anne Stott).

b. The capacity to respond intelligently to refined emotions, especially in art: "They celebrated deeds that fit stereotyped images of noble valor, making the writing flat and tedious to modern sensibilities" (David A. Bell).

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sensibility

(ˌsɛnsɪˈbɪlɪtɪ)

n, pl -ties

1. (Physiology) the ability to perceive or feel

2. (often plural) the capacity for responding to emotion, impression, etc

3. (often plural) the capacity for responding to aesthetic stimuli

4. mental responsiveness; discernment; awareness

5. (usually plural) emotional or moral feelings: cruelty offends most people's sensibilities.

6. (Botany) the condition of a plant of being susceptible to external influences, esp attack by parasites

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

sen•si•bil•i•ty

(ˌsɛn səˈbɪl ɪ ti)

n., pl. -ties.

1. capacity for feeling; responsiveness to sensory stimuli.

2. mental susceptibility or responsiveness.

3. Often, sensibilities. acute capacity to respond to blame or praise.

4. Often, sensibilities. capacity for intellectual and aesthetic discrimination: a person of refined sensibilities.

5. the property, as in plants or instruments, of being readily affected by external influences.

[1325–75; Middle English sensibilite < Middle French < Late Latin sēnsibilitās]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	sensibility - mental responsiveness and awareness aesthesia, esthesia consciousness - an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation; "he lost consciousness" insensibility - a lack of sensibility
	2.	sensibility - refined sensitivity to pleasurable or painful impressions; "cruelty offended his sensibility" sensitiveness, sensitivity - sensitivity to emotional feelings (of self and others) perceptiveness, perceptivity, insight - a feeling of understanding sensuousness - a sensuous feeling
	3.	sensibility - (physiology) responsiveness to external stimuli; the faculty of sensation; "sensitivity to pain" sensitivity, sensitiveness sensory faculty, sentiency, sentience, sense, sensation - the faculty through which the external world is apprehended; "in the dark he had to depend on touch and on his senses of smell and hearing" acuteness - a sensitivity that is keen and highly developed; "dogs have a remarkable acuteness of smell" hypersensitivity - extreme sensitivity reactivity, responsiveness - responsive to stimulation exteroception - sensitivity to stimuli originating outside of the body interoception - sensitivity to stimuli originating inside of the body photosensitivity, radiosensitivity - sensitivity to the action of radiant energy physiology - the branch of the biological sciences dealing with the functioning of organisms

sensibility

noun

1. awareness, insight, intuition, taste, appreciation, delicacy, sensitivity, discernment, perceptiveness Everything he writes demonstrates the depths of his sensibility.
awareness unconsciousness, lack of awareness, insensibility, unperceptiveness, insensitivity, insensibility

2. (often plural) feelings, emotions, sentiments, susceptibilities, moral sense The challenge offended their sensibilities.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

sensibility

noun

1. The capacity for or an act of responding to a stimulus:

feeling, sensation, sense, sensitiveness, sensitivity, sentiment.

2. The quality or condition of being emotionally and intuitively sensitive:

feeling, sensitiveness, sensitivity.

Translations

شُعور مُرْهَف

senzitivnost

følsomhed

Empfindsamkeit Empfindungsvermögen Sensibilität

sensibilité

næmi; gott skynbragî

sensibilit...sensibilità

jausmaipajauta

jutīgumssmalka uztveres spēja

følsomhet sanseevne

senzitívnosť

duyarlıkhassasiyet

敏感性识别力

sensibility

[ˌsensɪˈbɪlɪtɪ] N

1. → sensibilidad f (to a)

2. sensibilities → susceptibilidad fsing

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sensibility

[ˌsɛnsɪˈbɪləti]

(= awareness) → sensibilité f sensibilities

npl → sensibilités fpl
to offend sb's sensibilities → heurter les sensibilités de qn

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sensibility

n (to beauty etc) → Empfindsamkeit f; (= artistic sensibility also) → Sensibilität f; (= emotional sensibility, susceptibility to insult) → Empfindlichkeit f, → Sensibilität f; sensibilities → Zartgefühl nt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sensibility

[ˌsɛnsɪˈbɪlɪtɪ] n (delicacy of feeling) → sensibilità f inv

b. (sensitivity) → suscettibilità f inv

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

sensibility

(sensiˈbiləti) noun

an awareness of, or an ability to create, art, literature etc showing very high standards of beauty and good taste. a writer of great sensibility.

ˌsensiˈbilities noun plural

feelings that can be easily hurt by criticism etc. Do try not to offend her sensibilities.

sen·si·bil·i·ty

n sensibilidad, capacidad de recibir sensaciones;

physical ___ → ___ fisica.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

To a person of similar sensibility this simple assertion will explain and excuse everything.

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A sensibility too tremblingly alive to every affliction of my Freinds, my Acquaintance and particularly to every affliction of my own, was my only fault, if a fault it could be called.

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I mean to win my sister-in-law's heart through the children; I know all their names already, and am going to attach myself with the greatest sensibility to one in particular, a young Frederic, whom I take on my lap and sigh over for his dear uncle's sake.

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As Copley departed, happening to glance backward from the threshold, he beheld Drowne bending over the half-created shape, and stretching forth his arms as if he would have embraced and drawn it to his heart; while, had such a miracle been possible, his countenance expressed passion enough to communicate warmth and sensibility to the lifeless oak.

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You will think, perhaps, that I must have been a poet, from this early sensibility to Nature.

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They read, they talked, they sang together; his musical talents were considerable; and he read with all the sensibility and spirit which Edward had unfortunately wanted.

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Wordsworth's own character, as we have already observed, was dominated by a certain contentment, a sort of naturally religious placidity, not often found in union with a poetic sensibility so [97] active as his; and this gentle sense of well-being was favourable to the quiet, habitual observation of the inanimate, or imperfectly animate, world.

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'Keep clear of her, my dear fellow; she's the most heartless creature living.' The friend took my part; he said, 'I don't agree with you; the young lady is a person of great sensibility.'

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Cousin Laurence was a boy of twelve, a bright scholar, in whom an early thoughtfulness and sensibility began to show themselves.

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It was as if some transcendent musician should draw a soul-thrilling sweetness out of a cracked instrument, which makes its physical imperfection heard in the midst of ethereal harmony,--so deep was the sensibility that found an organ in Hepzibah's voice!

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When suffering has reached a given point of intensity the nervous sensibility becomes incapable of feeling more.

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It is that which, being the immediate and visible guardian of life and property, having its benefits and its terrors in constant activity before the public eye, regulating all those personal interests and familiar concerns to which the sensibility of individuals is more immediately awake, contributes, more than any other circumstance, to impressing upon the minds of the people, affection, esteem, and reverence towards the government.

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