per·ceive

(pər-sēv′)

tr.v. per·ceived, per·ceiv·ing, per·ceives

a. To become aware of (something) directly through any of the senses, especially sight or hearing: We could perceive three figures in the fog.

b. To cause or allow the mind to become aware of (a stimulus): The ear perceives sounds.

2. To achieve understanding of; apprehend: Einstein perceived that energy and matter are equivalent. See Synonyms at see¹.

3. To regard or consider; deem: an old technology that is still perceived as useful; a politician who is perceived to be a dissembler.

[Middle English perceiven, from Old French perceivre, from Latin percipere : per-, per- + capere, to seize; see kap- in Indo-European roots.]

per·ceiv′a·ble adj.

per·ceiv′a·bly adv.

per·ceiv′er n.

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.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

perceiver - a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses

beholder, observer, percipient

individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul - a human being; "there was too much for one person to do"

eyeglass wearer - a person who wears spectacles in order to see better

discoverer, finder, spotter - someone who is the first to observe something

attender, auditor, hearer, listener - someone who listens attentively

audile - one whose mental imagery is auditory rather than visual or motor

motile - one whose prevailing mental imagery takes the form of inner feelings of action

noticer - someone who takes notice; "a careful noticer of details"

seer - an observer who perceives visually; "an incurable seer of movies"

looker, spectator, viewer, watcher, witness - a close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind); "the spectators applauded the performance"; "television viewers"; "sky watchers discovered a new star"

visualiser, visualizer - one whose prevailing mental imagery is visual

witness, witnesser, informant - someone who sees an event and reports what happened

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

According to Berkeley, each of these sense-impressions depends on the relative experience of the perceiver. The principle of ontological inherence states that reality is perceiver-dependent due to the nature of sensation.

George Berkeley Through History: Multimodal Perception from the 1700s to Present

The first of these principles suggests that stereotypes assist the perceiver in making sense of a given situation, the second conveys the idea that they help the perceiver save the effort involved by attempts to decode and interpret a given circumstance, while the last principle infers that stereotypes are actually formed in compliance with the already existing norms and beliefs circulated by the group to which the perceiver belongs.

REFLECTING ROMANIA. BETWEEN STEREOTYPING AND REALITY

Snyder writes, "This 'behavioral confirmation' scenario (so named because the target's behavior comes to confirm the perceiver's expectations in the course of their social interaction) has been demonstrated for a wide range of expectations (including beliefs about personality, ability, gender, and race) and a variety of interaction contexts (including relatively unstructured interactions such as initial getting-acquainted conversations between strangers, as well as relatively structure interactions such as those between teachers and students, supervisors and workers, counselors and clients)" (pp.

Trusz, Sawomir and Przemysaw Babel (Eds.). Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Expectancies

He would be open-minded, ready to revise his opinion as rapidly as any perceiver. Any intransigence would be a side-effect of his theory about the senses.

RATIO: Vol. 31, No. 1, March 2018

One is reminded of the Hindu tenets that all religions are true religions and the perceiver is the perceived.

Amit Majmudar. Dothead: Poems

Fish, after all, is a master of perception, of what has been called "creative apperception," perception in which the perceiver becomes inseparable from the perceived, having invested her being spontaneously and totally in it.

Janet Fish: DC Moore

A chapter follows about bee-hunting and James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Oak-Openings; or, The Bee Keeper, which to its detriment models the author's central claim by buzzing from one subject to another, drawing upon rhetorical analysis, environmental studies, literary formalism, and phenomenology--as well as digressions on Cooper's symbolic use of trees and Emily Dickinson's meditations upon bee beauty--to assess the nineteenth-century version of "the ecologically networked body of the perceiver situated in particular environment" (21).

Michael Ziser, Environmental Practice and Early American Literature

She also identifies certain personality types, such as "the clingy, anxious perceiver" who responds best to clear and patient direction, and "the aloof, avoidant perceiver" who isn't likely to show gratitude or appreciation.

No One Understands You and What to Do About It

Ultimately, I use the unique position of The Stein Poems to argue that Mac Low's anarchist poetics and politics are best understood not necessarily or exclusively in relation to aleatoric or nonintentional writing methods but primarily in relation to the role of the reader (who is thus performer and perceiver) in this quasi-intentional work.

Freely revised and edited: anarchist authorship in Jackson Mac Low's The Stein Poems

The perceiver does not infer the moral property from the non-normative base properties with the aid of the felt sense of connection, but rather, sees the moral property in virtue of the felt sense of connection.

Audi, Robert. Moral Perception