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:
Evidently the ideal has been formed by the habit of perception; it is, in a rough way, that average form which we expect and most readily apperceive.
From The Sense of Beauty Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory by Santayana, George
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
Good instruction, then, involves first putting the child into a proper frame of mind to apperceive the new knowledge, and hence this becomes a corner-stone of all good teaching method.
From The History of Education; educational practice and progress considered as a phase of the development and spread of western civilization by Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson
From my perception, then, of hoof or sound I apperceive cow.
From Applied Psychology for Nurses by Porter, Mary F.
Similarly, the time-honored phenomenon of diabolical possession is on the point of being admitted by the scientist as a fact, now that he has the name of "hystero-demonopathy" by which to apperceive it.
From Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature by James, William
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
When Johnny is as sure it is his father as if he could see his face close beside him he has apperceived him.
From Applied Psychology for Nurses by Porter, Mary F.
The sound of the single wave is felt, but not distinguished, is perceived, but not apperceived.
From History of Modern Philosophy From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time by Falckenberg, Richard
It may include facts which have fallen within the sensory field, but which have never been supraliminally "apperceived" or cognised in any way.
From Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death by Myers, F. W. H. (Frederic William Henry)
They also apperceived from my speech that I had come from a great distance.
From Earths In Our Solar System Which Are Called Planets, and Earths In The Starry Heaven Their Inhabitants, And The Spirits And Angels There by Swedenborg, Emanuel
That they did not have sufficient "apperceiving basis" I cannot believe, for they were generally bright and clever.
From The Long Day The Story of a New York Working Girl As Told by Herself by Richardson, Dorothy
The choices which determine the universe of maturity are often made in youth; then the foundations are laid of that apperceiving mass which is to condition all the man's contacts with reality.
From The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day by Underhill, Evelyn
So strong is the apperceiving force of familiar notions that they drag far-distant scenes in geography and history into the home neighborhood and locate them there.
From The Elements of General Method Based on the Principles of Herbart by McMurry, Charles Alexander
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
In the presence of these they now make manifest their apperceiving power.
From The Elements of General Method Based on the Principles of Herbart by McMurry, Charles Alexander
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.
