percipient
Americanadjective
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perceiving or capable of perceiving.
-
having perception; discerning; discriminating.
a percipient choice of wines.
noun
adjective
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able to perceive
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perceptive
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of percipient
1655–65; < Latin percipient- (stem of percipiēns ) present participle of percipere to take in, equivalent to per- per- + -cipi- combining form of present stem of capere to take + -ent- -ent
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.
As I’ve written in the past, Rakoff is one of our most percipient jurists about the impact of new technologies on the law.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 6, 2026
That drew a horselaugh from veteran investor Jim Chanos, whose experience as a short-seller has given him a uniquely percipient feel for Wall Street foibles.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 12, 2023
It’s fun wordplay with a percipient message, but fans might be further impressed to know she wrote and recorded the song extemporaneously in a single take, sitting in a studio chair while eight months pregnant.
From Washington Post • Jan. 18, 2023
To offset that, I'm reading Inside Lives: Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality by Margot Waddell, which is beautifully written, humane, clear and full of percipient literary references.
From The Guardian • Jul. 20, 2012
But in the case of objects of sense this is not obvious; indeed, as we saw, the common-sense view is that such objects persist in the absence of any percipient.
From Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy by Russell, Bertrand
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.
