sentient

C1 Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈsɛn.ʃi.ənt/ UK /ˈsɛn.ti.ənt/ See IPA manual

Freq #25841

Meanings

1

adj
Able to feel, sense, or experience things.

Many people argue that all sentient animals deserve protection from cruelty.
2

adj
Having human-like awareness and intelligence.

The film imagines a future in which sentient machines demand rights.
3

noun
An intelligent, self-aware being.

In the story, humans and other sentients live side by side.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · able to feel, sense, or... aware sensate animate

2 adj · having human-like awareness... intelligent sapientself-aware

More intelligencesophont

Opposites

automaton insensate

Word family

Derived forms cosentienthypersentientinsentientnonsentientomnisentientpresentientpseudosentientsemisentientsentientlyunsentient

Related forms conscientself-aware

Etymology

From Latin sentiēns (“feeling, perceiving”), present active participle of sentiō.

*sent- Proto-Indo-European sentiēns Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# sentient

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C1
**Part of speech:** adj, noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈsɛn.ʃi.ənt/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈsɛn.ti.ənt/
**Frequency rank:** 25841

## Meanings
1. Able to feel, sense, or experience things.
2. Having human-like awareness and intelligence.
3. An intelligent, self-aware being.

## Examples
- Many people argue that all sentient animals deserve protection from cruelty.
- The film imagines a future in which sentient machines demand rights.
- In the story, humans and other sentients live side by side.

## Synonyms
- intelligence
- sapient
- sophont

## Antonyms
- automaton
- insensate

## Derived Forms
- cosentient
- hypersentient
- insentient
- nonsentient
- omnisentient
- presentient
- pseudosentient
- semisentient
- sentiently
- unsentient

## Related Forms
- conscient
- self-aware

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *sent-
- Root: sentiēns

## Etymology
From Latin sentiēns (“feeling, perceiving”), present active participle of sentiō.

## AI Etymology
Sentient is from Latin sentiēns (“feeling, perceiving”), present active participle of sentiō. In present-day use, it can mean able to feel, sense, or experience things, or having human-like awareness and intelligence. Related forms include conscient, self-aware. Derived formations include cosentient, hypersentient, insentient, nonsentient, omnisentient.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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