apperceive
Americanverb (used with object)
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to have conscious perception of; comprehend.
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to comprehend (a new idea) by assimilation with the sum of one's previous knowledge and experience.
verb
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to be aware of perceiving
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psychol to comprehend by assimilating (a perception) to ideas already in the mind
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of apperceive
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English word from Old French word aperceivre. See ap- 1, perceive
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:
Certain it is that the adolescent power to apperceive and appreciate never so far outstrips his power to produce or reproduce as about midway in the teens.
From Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene by Hall, G. Stanley
On the contrary, they apperceive every experience and assign it to its place.
From Meaning of Truth by James, William
He can not apperceive it so as to permit him to gratify my claim; but there is enough appeal in the claim to induce him to write a whole article in justification of his refusal.
From Essays in Radical Empiricism by James, William
By bringing his old knowledge to bear on such a sentence as "The men who brought it returned at once"; the pupil may be asked first to apperceive the subordinate clause, who brought it.
From Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education by Ontario. Ministry of Education
Again, we may apperceive an object or quality from our recognition of something which in our experience has been associated, under those particular circumstances, with only that object or quality.
From Applied Psychology for Nurses by Porter, Mary F.
It is, moreover, a condition of the kind of expression possible, and often determines the manner in which the object suggested shall be apperceived.
From The Sense of Beauty Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory by Santayana, George
The way in which the human figure, for instance, is depicted, is an indication of the way in which it is apperceived.
From The Sense of Beauty Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory by Santayana, George
Thus, for example, newly formed representations are apperceived by the existing older ones, but the highest apperceiver is not, in turn, itself apperceived.
From History of Modern Philosophy From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time by Falckenberg, Richard
It is sufficient for the type of individual who malingers to merely say the word, and the most fantastic creation of his fancy immediately becomes a reality and is apperceived by him as such.
From Studies in Forensic Psychiatry by Glueck, Bernard
Thus the columns of a temple represent upward movement, and are apperceived as striving upwards so as to resist the downward pressure of the entablature.
From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg
This influence is shown even in the commonplace instances, where the professional or the amateur is betrayed by the manner of apperceiving one and the same object.
From Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts by Jelliffe, Smith Ely
Some of the apperceiving ideas are recent acquisitions of our own, but most of them are common-sense traditions of the race.
From Meaning of Truth by James, William
The process of apperceiving or of assimilation may involve it.
From How to Teach by Strayer, George Drayton
In an act of memory, therefore, the new presentation, like all new presentations, must be interpreted in terms of past experience, or by an apperceiving act of attention.
From Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education by Ontario. Ministry of Education
Further, the apperceiving ideas become more interesting to the pupil, when he finds that he can use them in the conquest of new fields.
From Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education by Ontario. Ministry of Education
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.
