perception
the act or faculty of perceiving, or apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding.
immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities; insight; intuition; discernment: an artist of rare perception.
the result or product of perceiving, as distinguished from the act of perceiving; percept.
Psychology. a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present.
Law. the taking into possession of rents, crops, profits, etc.
Origin of perception
1Other words for perception
Other words from perception
- per·cep·tion·al, adjective
- non·per·cep·tion, noun
- non·per·cep·tion·al, adjective
- re·per·cep·tion, noun
- self-per·cep·tion, noun
- un·per·cep·tion·al, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use perception in a sentence
Log scales can be useful because some types of human perception are logarithmic.
Explainer: What are logarithms and exponents? | Bethany Brookshire | August 12, 2020 | Science News For StudentsSome of that may be because as the virus spreads to different parts of the country, more Republicans are coming into contact with it, which may change their perceptions of it.
Some Republicans Have Gotten More Concerned About COVID-19 | Dhrumil Mehta (dhrumil.mehta@fivethirtyeight.com) | July 31, 2020 | FiveThirtyEightShirk told me she traces the changes in China’s behavior to the 2008 financial crisis, as she argued that was when perceptions really started to change.
Why Blaming China For The Pandemic Probably Won’t Help Trump Win | Likhitha Butchireddygari (likhitha.butchireddygari@disney.com) | July 28, 2020 | FiveThirtyEightWe tried “hundreds of different combinations,” said Rinberg, to tease out what really matters to our brain’s olfactory perception.
A Highway to Smell: How Scientists Used Light to Incept Smell in Mice | Shelly Fan | July 1, 2020 | Singularity HubIn this way, the brain takes incoming information about the world and stitches it into useful perceptions.
How to make a mouse smell a smell that doesn’t actually exist | Laura Sanders | June 18, 2020 | Science News
So he was saying: We have these perceptions on the parts of blacks and cops, and we need to deal with them.
But in the court of law these, initial perceptions matter little.
Some Upper East Side natives are getting restless about outside perceptions.
Why the Upper East Side Is Now Cooler Than Brooklyn | Tom Teodorczuk | September 2, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut addressing that “winter of despair” should not reinforce the inaccurate perceptions.
Why the US-Africa Summit Was Important and Why It Wasn't Enough | John Prendergast | August 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTTheir results showed classical and rock had no impact on perceptions of meal quality.
Jazz (The Music of Coffee and Donuts) Has Respect, But It Needs Love | Ted Gioia | June 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBarrington's perceptions seemed to grow clearer, and he asked a few pertinent questions before he nodded approbation.
Winston of the Prairie | Harold BindlossFlick awoke by one of those subconscious mental perceptions that the Society for Psychical Research is at present investigating.
The Woman Gives | Owen JohnsonIda and Carry were bent upon dressing alike; no easy matter to do, consistently with their perceptions of colours and fitness.
Alone | Marion HarlandThe action was a rapid one—so rapid as to take Jack unawares, but not so rapid as the love-quickened perceptions of Thyra.
Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks | Bracebridge HemyngNo one but an artist of his surprising agility and perceptions could have made such a method so universal.
British Dictionary definitions for perception
/ (pəˈsɛpʃən) /
the act or the effect of perceiving
insight or intuition gained by perceiving
the ability or capacity to perceive
way of perceiving; awareness or consciousness; view: advertising affects the customer's perception of a product
the process by which an organism detects and interprets information from the external world by means of the sensory receptors
law the collection, receipt, or taking into possession of rents, crops, etc
Origin of perception
1Derived forms of perception
- perceptional, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Browse