emotion
Americannoun
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emotions
plural
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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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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 ); see e- 1 ( def. ), move ( def. ), motion ( def. )
Explanation
An emotion is a strong feeling, like the emotion you feel when you see your best friend at the movies with a group of people who cause trouble for you. The word emotion comes from the Middle French word émotion, which means "a (social) moving, stirring, agitation." We feel many different emotions every day, like love, fear, joy and sadness — just to name a few. On its own, emotion means "the expression of feeling," like a musician who plays with great emotion, or an actor whose face conveys emotions, even when he or she is just standing quietly on the stage.
Vocabulary lists containing emotion
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 4
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The New SAT: The Language of the Test
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"Fears and Phobias," Vocabulary from the article
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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.
See Examples For:
The hormone also increased coordination between the networks involved in emotion and memory.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
Built from heavy music of complexity and deep emotion, “Marrow Deep” is in part a document of the band in conflict and mourning for the man they’d spent two decades within a close creative brotherhood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
"Stories about corporate intrigue, money and power have found a home on TV. They lack the cinematic qualities that excite big screen audiences, like emotion, spectacle and fantasy," Gross said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
The morning after, Stanley told the BBC he was "exhausted" and "overwhelmed with emotion".
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
Wergin was surprised when Haupt was overcome with emotion and began to cry.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
Temper those outrageous emotions, the ones the algorithms have gotten so good at teasing out of us.
From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2026
This ability to reassess a situation can make it easier to understand difficult emotions and determine how to respond.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
I don’t want to let words dictate my next emotions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
He hopes the image will encourage people to look beyond animals' physical appearance and recognise them as individuals with their own relationships, memories and emotions.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
The Supreme Commander has trained me, since birth, to control my emotions.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
