arousal
Americannoun
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arousals
plural
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the act or an instance of waking up.
Arousals occur naturally during sleep and increase with age.
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the act of stimulating someone sexually, or the state of being sexually stimulated.
Some yoga practices improve levels of arousal in sexually unsatisfied women.
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the act of stirring up or the state of being stirred up; excitement: Relieving teens from stress in conversations can be a very effective way to prevent the arousal of anger.
Be aware of your level of emotional arousal when making decisions.
Relieving teens from stress in conversations can be a very effective way to prevent the arousal of anger.
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Etymology
Origin of arousal
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:
Once the object is acquired and the tension resolved, psychological arousal falls.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Once again, the medications activated reward and arousal networks rather than attention networks.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 29, 2025
According to Newen, basic arousal was the first to emerge in evolutionary history.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 15, 2025
As a therapist, I know that for children with autism, water offers resistance, pressure and pleasant sensory arousal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2025
It’s also because of what happens after the chase, since pursuing a suspect at high speed is precisely the kind of activity that pushes police officers into this dangerous state of high arousal.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Although they may be disruptive to parents, spontaneous arousals could help save a baby’s life.
From Scientific American ● May 1, 2018
In a new Science Advances paper Bartsch proposes an innovative hypothesis that spontaneous arousals are due to random electrical activity in a specific set of neurons in the brain—aptly named the wake-promoting neurons.
From Scientific American ● May 1, 2018
In a stark departure from Freudian orthodoxy, Solms argues that what Freud said constituted the id — arousals, instincts and drives — are instead conscious states, readily accessible to observation.
From New York Times ● Jun. 24, 2015
Breathing stoppages literally suction up your stomach juices into your throat, causing more swelling and inflammation, causing more obstructions and arousals.
From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 2010
Confusional arousals: People may be agitated, aggressive and unable to waken fully, talk clearly or respond to questions.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 12, 2010
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.
