Showing results for "perceived"

• past participle of perceive.
• past tense form of perceive.

perceived

American  

[per-seevd] / pərˈsivd /

adjective

1. taken in by the senses; heard, seen, felt, etc..

   Spontaneous memories are activated by specific signals from the parts of the brain that deal with perceived stimuli like smells, pictures, and words.

2. detected, discerned, or recognized, often without corroboration by others.

   He fails to appreciate that the perceived "backlash" against his post was not an expression of reluctance to accept change, just disagreement with his specific proposal.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of perceive.

Other Word Forms

• perceivedness
  noun
• unperceived
  adjective
• well-perceived
  adjective
• perceivedly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of perceived

perceive ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Explanation

If you sense something is true by instinct, but not necessarily by fact, you can describe that sense as perceived. If you suspect that your neighbor's dog might be dangerous, you can say the dog is a perceived threat to your family's safety. The adjective perceived has its Latin roots in per, meaning "thoroughly," and capere, meaning "to grasp." Today it retains a sense of grasping something mentally or sensing it. Oddly, the word has two conflicting meanings: first, something you infer or suspect, rather than detecting with your senses. The second meaning, however, is quite the opposite: something sensed through your actual senses, especially those of sight or hearing.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

perceived

Since Steven Gerrard's 2021 exit, appointments have been perceived by some more as project coaches but the Ibrox club have made it clear McInnes arrives as a manager, not a head coach.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

In Minneapolis, residents perceived the danger not as the vulnerable populations being stopped, but as armed federal power.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

The way words are perceived can change too, with connotations morphing from negative to positive.

From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026

Mr. Jones describes a freshwater snail that, sensing a predator, instinctively climbs or descends depending on where the perceived threat tends to hunt.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

No one in the audience perceived a link between the two subjects being discussed.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Related Words

• anticipated
• recognized