sen·tient

(sĕn′shənt, -shē-ənt, -tē-ənt)

adj.

1. Having sense perception; conscious: "The living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God's stage" (T.E. Lawrence).

2. Experiencing sensation or feeling.

[Latin sentiēns, sentient-, present participle of sentīre, to feel; see sent- in Indo-European roots.]

sen′tient·ly adv.

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.

sentient

(ˈsɛntɪənt)

adj

having the power of sense perception or sensation; conscious

rare a sentient person or thing

[C17: from Latin sentiēns feeling, from sentīre to perceive]

ˈsentiently adv

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

sen•tient

(ˈsɛn ʃənt)

adj.

1. having the power of perception by the senses; conscious.

2. characterized by sensation and consciousness.

[1595–1605; < Latin sentient-, s. of sentiēns, present participle of sentīre to feel; see -ent]

sen′tient•ly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.	1.	sentient - endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness; "the living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God's stage"- T.E.Lawrence animate insensate, insentient - devoid of feeling and consciousness and animation; "insentient (or insensate) stone"
	2.	sentient - consciously perceiving; "sentient of the intolerable load"; "a boy so sentient of his surroundings"- W.A.White conscious - knowing and perceiving; having awareness of surroundings and sensations and thoughts; "remained conscious during the operation"; "conscious of his faults"; "became conscious that he was being followed"

sentient

adjective feeling, living, conscious, live, sensitive, reactive sentient creatures, human and nonhuman alike

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

sentient

adjective

1. Marked by comprehension, cognizance, and perception:

alive, awake, aware, cognizant, sensible, wise.

Slang: hip.

Idiom: on to.

2. Able to receive and respond to external stimuli:

impressible, impressionable, responsive, sensible, sensitive, susceptible, susceptive.

Translations

sentient

[ˈsenʃənt] ADJ → sensitivo, sensible

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

sentient

[ˈsɛntiənt] adj [being, creature] → doué(e) de sens

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sentient

adj → empfindungsfähig

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

sentient

[ˈsɛntɪənt] adj (frm) (creature, being) → sensibile, senziente

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

She was glowing from her morning toilet as only healthful youth can glow: there was gem-like brightness on her coiled hair and in her hazel eyes; there was warm red life in her lips; her throat had a breathing whiteness above the differing white of the fur which itself seemed to wind about her neck and cling down her blue-gray pelisse with a tenderness gathered from her own, a sentient commingled innocence which kept its loveliness against the crystalline purity of the outdoor snow.

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Dancing began; I should have liked well enough to be introduced to some pleasing and intelligent girl, and to have freedom and opportunity to show that I could both feel and communicate the pleasure of social intercourse--that I was not, in short, a block, or a piece of furniture, but an acting, thinking, sentient man.

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'When Master Bloomfield's amusements consist in injuring sentient creatures,' I answered, 'I think it my duty to interfere.'

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All night he lay there, alternately unconscious and painfully sentient; and in the latter state watching with savage hatred the lurid flames which still rose from burning crib and hay cock.

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Then silence brooded over all--silence so complete that it seemed in itself a sentient thing--silence which seemed like incarnate darkness, and conveyed the same idea to all who came within its radius.

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Naked and unarmed, as I was, my end would have been both speedy and horrible at the hands of these cruel creatures had I had time to put my resolve into execution, but at the moment of the shriek each member of the herd turned in the direction from which the sound seemed to come, and at the same instant every particular snake-like hair upon their heads rose stiffly perpendicular as if each had been a sentient organism looking or listening for the source or meaning of the wail.

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Instantly the latter was transformed to a sentient creature, filled with pulsing life and alert energy.

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If I could collect humanity into one sentient force, I would set my heel upon it without hesitation.

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"Doubtless you do not hold with those (I need not name them to a man of your reading) who have taught that all matter is sentient, that every atom is a living, feeling, conscious being.

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Mortimer would often turn to her, as if she were an interpreter between this sentient world and the insensible man; and she would change the dressing of a wound, or ease a ligature, or turn his face, or alter the pressure of the bedclothes on him, with an absolute certainty of doing right.

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When I was as old as you, I was a feeling fellow enough, partial to the unfledged, unfostered, and unlucky; but Fortune has knocked me about since: she has even kneaded me with her knuckles, and now I flatter myself I am hard and tough as an India-rubber ball; pervious, though, through a chink or two still, and with one sentient point in the middle of the lump.

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The Killer shuddered, scowling at the inanimate iron and wood of the spear as though they constituted a sentient being endowed with a malignant mind.

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