emotion
Americannoun
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emotions
plural
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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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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 ); see e- 1 ( def. ), move ( def. ), motion ( def. )
Explanation
An emotion is a strong feeling, like the emotion you feel when you see your best friend at the movies with a group of people who cause trouble for you. The word emotion comes from the Middle French word émotion, which means "a (social) moving, stirring, agitation." We feel many different emotions every day, like love, fear, joy and sadness — just to name a few. On its own, emotion means "the expression of feeling," like a musician who plays with great emotion, or an actor whose face conveys emotions, even when he or she is just standing quietly on the stage.
Vocabulary lists containing emotion
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 4
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The New SAT: The Language of the Test
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"Fears and Phobias," Vocabulary from the article
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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.
See Examples For:
Burnham told podcaster Day his English degree helped with "getting the emotion into what you do and what you say" and having a "connection with people".
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
A well-read person grows body armor against the rigid conspiracy theorist, against flat artificial intelligence that manipulates without emotion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Villarreal: Seeing what Robby is facing, how do you establish boundaries for yourself in terms of taking it in — dealing with the burnout, and overwhelming emotion of it?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
After he was broken for 4-1 in the next, Draper sat down during a change of ends and was overcome with emotion, wiping tears from his eyes.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
“I’m glad for you,” I tell her, my voice full of emotion.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Kirkham also cites play as having "therapeutic value" for exploring our emotions, experiences and memories, but in a safe space.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
But emotions were high, and he didn’t think before he spoke.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
The scientists then wanted to know whether these same brain regions reacted differently to other emotions.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
Any dog lover will tell you their canine friend picks up on their mood and emotions.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
In the past week since my birthday, I’ve been on a never-ending ride of emotions.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
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.
