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.
Many autistic people also have alexithymia, a trait that makes it exceptionally difficult to identify and describe emotions, and have been stymied by questions intended to assess their internal state.
From Los Angeles Times
The relative, who we are calling Sina, says that when his family recently got together at his grandmother's house, emotions quickly exploded, exposing stark divisions.
From BBC
I pin a smile on my face, try to force the swell of emotion that rises in my throat away.
From Literature
This time, the emotion he was hiding was unbridled joy.
It is something Essiedu recognises more broadly in how people navigate difficult emotions.
From BBC
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.
