perception

American  

[per-sep-shuhn] / pərˈsɛp ʃən /

noun

1. the act or faculty of perceiving, or apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding.

   Synonyms:

   recognition, sense, awareness

2. immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities; insight; intuition; discernment.

   an artist of rare perception.

3. the result or product of perceiving, as distinguished from the act of perceiving; percept.

4. Psychology. a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present.

5. Law. the taking into possession of rents, crops, profits, etc.

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perception British  

/ pəˈsɛpʃən /

noun

1. the act or the effect of perceiving

2. insight or intuition gained by perceiving

3. the ability or capacity to perceive

4. way of perceiving; awareness or consciousness; view

   advertising affects the customer's perception of a product

5. the process by which an organism detects and interprets information from the external world by means of the sensory receptors

6. law the collection, receipt, or taking into possession of rents, crops, etc

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Other Word Forms

• nonperception
  noun
• nonperceptional
  adjective
• perceptional
  adjective
• reperception
  noun
• self-perception
  noun
• unperceptional
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of perception

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English percepcioun, from Old French percepcïon, from Latin perceptiōn-, stem of perceptiō “comprehension,” literally, “a taking in”; see percept, -ion

Explanation

Each generation has a different perception — view, idea or understanding — of what is cool. You wouldn't want to walk around in the paisley patterns of the 1960s or the big hair of the 1980s today! Based on the Latin root cipere, "to grasp," perception refers to the way you take in the world through your senses. Have you ever thought a stair was bigger than it really was so your step was too heavy? Your depth perception was off. The noun also means the opinions and beliefs you've formed about something. Your perception of your room after you've cleaned it is different than your parents' — you see clean and they probably don't.

Example Sentences

“There was earlier a perception among many of my clients that the White House would strongly oppose rate hikes, and that the Fed would therefore be dissuaded from doing them,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026

Kalshi and Polymarket, both of which are primarily taken up with sports betting, do seem aware that there is a perception that prediction markets are typically male places.

From BBC • May 21, 2026

According to a Wednesday note from Mizuho managing director Daniel O’Regan, “Google is still thought of as being in the frontier of AI-model technology, but the perception of Gemini has fallen behind ChatGPT and Claude.”

From MarketWatch • May 20, 2026

“You put into me the perception of the incomparable,” Bettany version says in a bitterly mournful prayer at the end of the second episode, “and then ensured that I would know myself forever mediocre.”

From Salon • May 16, 2026

Hunger can heighten perception, but not when combined with extreme fatigue; I suppose all my senses were very much deadened.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

Related Words

• approach
• attention
• attitude
• awareness
• concept
• consciousness
• feeling
• image
• impression
• judgment
• knowledge
• notion
• opinion
• recognition
• sense
• taste
• thought
• viewpoint