cognitive
Americanadjective
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of or relating to cognition; concerned with the act or process of knowing, perceiving, etc. .
cognitive development;
cognitive functioning.
-
of or relating to the mental processes of perception, memory, judgment, and reasoning, as contrasted with emotional and volitional processes.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cognitive
First recorded in 1580–90; from Medieval Latin cognitīvus, equivalent to Latin cognit(us) “learned, known” ( see cognition) + -īvus -ive
Explanation
If it's related to thinking, it's considered cognitive. Anxious parents might defend using flashcards with toddlers as "nurturing their cognitive development." The adjective, cognitive, comes from the Latin cognoscere "to get to know" and refers to the ability of the brain to think and reason as opposed to feel. A child's cognitive development is the growth in his or her ability to think and solve problems. Many English words that involve knowing and knowledge have cogn- in them such as cognizant "aware of" and recognize "to know someone in the present because you knew them from the past."
Vocabulary lists containing cognitive
In the Know: Cogn, Conn
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Vocabulary from the Introduction to "Reality is Broken" by Jane McGonigal
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Vocabulary from "There Will Never Be an Age of Artificial Intimacy," by Sherry Turkle
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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.
Cognitive exercises offered by a bot named Sunny, paired with telehealth visits, can be “physical therapy for the brain.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026
Cognitive scientists have investigated whether the brain itself is Bayesian—a probabilistic inference engine, perpetually recalibrating, merging incoming sensory data with past experience.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026
Cognitive challenges can make those milestones harder to reach.
From Science Daily • Mar. 2, 2026
Tamal Batabyal, a postdoctoral researcher at the Picower Institute, led the work, which was published Nov. 3 in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
From Science Daily • Nov. 4, 2025
Legends, myths, gods and religions appeared for the first time with the Cognitive Revolution.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
