emotion
Americannoun
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an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness.
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any of the feelings of joy, sorrow, fear, hate, love, etc.
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any strong agitation of the feelings actuated by experiencing love, hate, fear, etc., and usually accompanied by certain physiological changes, as increased heartbeat or respiration, and often overt manifestation, as crying or shaking.
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an instance of this.
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something that causes such a reaction.
the powerful emotion of a great symphony.
noun
Usage
What does emotion mean? An emotion is a spontaneous mental reaction, such as joy, sorrow, hate, and love. Emotions always involve mental activity and sometimes have physical effects on the body, as in She could tell what emotion he was feeling by looking at his face.The word emotion is used generally to refer collectively to these intense feelings or an expression of them, as in The director really wanted to see some emotion from the lead actress.What causes someone’s emotions and how someone feels or expresses their emotions differs from person to person. You and your friend might both feel sad to have failed an important test. Your reaction to your sad emotion might be to cry, while your friend’s reaction might be to shout.The word emotional describes something that is related to emotions, causing an emotion to happen, or easily experiencing emotions.Example: I have a hard time sharing my emotions with people and instead try to appear stoic.
Other Word Forms
- emotionable adjective
- emotionless adjective
- preemotion noun
Etymology
Origin of emotion
First recorded in 1570–80; apparently from Middle French esmotion, from esmovoir “to set in motion, move the feelings,” from Vulgar Latin exmovēre (unrecorded; literary Latin ēmovēre ); e- 1 ( def. ), move ( def. ), motion ( def. )
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.
Having dealt with the minutiae of the tactical approach he switched and started to deal with the emotion of the day.
From BBC • Mar. 24, 2026
It’s worth saying to him: “There’s no reason to feel ashamed. That’s not a useful emotion, and millions of people have found themselves in the same boat. You’re not alone.”
From MarketWatch • Mar. 21, 2026
The shallow furrows fail to stir emotion and are about as exciting as the irrigation channels they bring to mind.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026
And yet Petzold’s gift for seasoning truth with elusiveness is fully in force, giving this airy yet ghost-charged rescue story a welcome intelligence to go with its unforced emotion.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 19, 2026
Then in a flat voice devoid of any emotion, she read, “Your loving husband, Nat-Bat-Cuddly-Wuddly-Cat.”
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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.
