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.
To apperceive, for instance, the rules of government and agreement in grammar will have a very limited value if the student is not able to give expression to these in his own conversation.
From Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education by Ontario. Ministry of Education
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
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
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
They stated the view with a rash emphasis, until one is forced to ask whether a mind which is originally nothing at all, can absorb, or as psychologists say, "apperceive" anything whatever.
From Shelley, Godwin and Their Circle by Brailsford, Henry Noel
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.
