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:
The moment the guilty verdict was read in court, Shakur's family burst into emotion.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Are Ferrari allowing emotion to get in their way?
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Many important choices seem to pit reason against emotion.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026
All of this emotion is baked into “Travelin’ Thru” with the love and care of a Dolly Parton berry pie.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026
This is a fact that makes me feel an unpleasant human emotion when I think too much about it.
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
It was senior night for Orange Lutheran, with emotions flowing around Orange Coast College stadium all night, but it was a sophomore running back who had the most explosive performance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
These conflicting emotions are cued by music that enacts the characters’ inner lives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Seething at his dad for poking at his body insecurities, the comedian dealt with his emotions like any good millennial — by podcasting about it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
Difficult emotions like shame, humiliation, regret, fear and sadness often show up as anger, and that’s when insults can turn hurtful and corrosive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
He remembered the look on her face abruptly, the two emotions warring with each other in every inch of her expression.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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.
