emotion
Americannoun
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an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness.
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any of the feelings of joy, sorrow, fear, hate, love, etc.
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any strong agitation of the feelings actuated by experiencing love, hate, fear, etc., and usually accompanied by certain physiological changes, as increased heartbeat or respiration, and often overt manifestation, as crying or shaking.
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an instance of this.
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something that causes such a reaction.
the powerful emotion of a great symphony.
noun
Usage
What does emotion mean? An emotion is a spontaneous mental reaction, such as joy, sorrow, hate, and love. Emotions always involve mental activity and sometimes have physical effects on the body, as in She could tell what emotion he was feeling by looking at his face.The word emotion is used generally to refer collectively to these intense feelings or an expression of them, as in The director really wanted to see some emotion from the lead actress.What causes someone’s emotions and how someone feels or expresses their emotions differs from person to person. You and your friend might both feel sad to have failed an important test. Your reaction to your sad emotion might be to cry, while your friend’s reaction might be to shout.The word emotional describes something that is related to emotions, causing an emotion to happen, or easily experiencing emotions.Example: I have a hard time sharing my emotions with people and instead try to appear stoic.
Other Word Forms
- emotionable adjective
- emotionless adjective
- preemotion noun
Etymology
Origin of emotion
First recorded in 1570–80; apparently from Middle French esmotion, from esmovoir “to set in motion, move the feelings,” from Vulgar Latin exmovēre (unrecorded; literary Latin ēmovēre ); e- 1 ( def. ), move ( def. ), motion ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Art requires distance, and Tanner is so genuinely in the grip of intense family emotion that this father and son sometimes seem more real than theatrically compelling.
From Los Angeles Times
Internal dialogue helps people organize ideas, weigh choices, and make sense of emotions.
From Science Daily
Yet they mustered small smiles and waves walking into campus after the long absence, grappling with an array of emotions.
From Los Angeles Times
“Nothing, hijica. I’m sure it is the emotion of leaving our home. At night, the pain and the sadness catch up with me.”
From Literature
“Sometimes, when she doesn’t want to communicate or articulate her emotions or feelings, I think that this natural outdoor play gives her a sense of words that she can’t express,” Johnson said.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
