sentient

adjective

sen·tient ˈsen(t)-sh(ē-)ənt

ˈsen-tē-ənt

Synonyms of sentient next

: capable of sensing or feeling : conscious of or responsive to the sensations of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, or smelling

sentient beings

Some among the group of potters … speak of the kiln as though it were sentient.—

Barry Lopez

But the really intriguing question is a hypothetical one. What would Google's response be if it realised that it actually had a sentient machine on its hands?—

John Naughton

But the terrible silence and emptiness seemed to symbolize her future—she felt as though the house, the street, the world were all empty, and she alone left sentient in a lifeless universe.—

Edith Wharton

: aware

sentient of the danger posed by the approaching hurricane

But the strange thing is that a boy so sentient of his surroundings should have been so insensible to the real world about him.—

W. A. White

: finely sensitive in perception or feeling

a sentient author with beautiful prose

As every sentient diplomat knows, diplomacy uses the reputation of power to achieve what power itself often cannot achieve, or can achieve only at greater and sometimes excessive cost.—

Colin L. Powell

sentiently adverb

Did you know?

You may have guessed that sentient has something to do with the senses. The initial spelling sent- or sens- is often a giveaway for such a meaning. A sentient being is one who perceives and responds to sensations of whatever kind—sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell. Sentient ultimately comes from the Latin verb sentire, which means "to feel" or "to perceive," and is related to the noun sensus, meaning "sense." A few related English words are sentiment and sentimental, which have to do with emotions, sensual, which relates to more physical sensations, and the trio of assent, consent, and dissent, which involve one's expressions of agreement (or disagreement in the case of dissent) in thought and feeling with another.

Example Sentences

sentient of the danger posed by the approaching hurricane

Recent Examples on the Web In these games, Yudkowsky played the role of a computer program that had become sentient enough to reason with its creators. —

Popular Mechanics, 13 June 2023 With every gust of wind, the prayers printed on them are said to spread throughout the world for the benefit of all sentient beings. —

Klara Glowczewska, Town & Country, 8 June 2023 Here the sentient Spider-Mobile appears during Miles’ hasty escape from the Spider-Society. 19. —

Dan Gvozden, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 June 2023 Since then, a growing faction within the AI community has been warning about the potential risks of a doomsday-type scenario where the technology grows sentient and attempts to destroy humans in some way. —

Gerrit De Vynck, Washington Post, 30 May 2023 Google last year suspended an engineer who contended that LaMDA had become sentient—a claim roundly rejected by scientists in the field. —

Sam Schechner, WSJ, 6 Feb. 2023 The wedding, its own sentient entity with a strong survival instinct, will lurch forward regardless. —

Vulture, 27 Jan. 2023 Of course, in the real world, with walls and furniture and sacks of sentient meat walking around, that may not quite line up. —

Wes Davis, The Verge, 15 May 2023 After some introductory remarks, Humphrey, who enjoys cordial philosophical combat, suggested that, by Birch’s definitions, a cruise missile would qualify as a sentient organism. —

Nick Romeo, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sentient.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.