noun
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the quality or state of being sensual
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excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sensuality
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English sensualite, from Old French, from Late Latin sēnsuālitās; equivalent to sensual + -ity
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.
A strikingly potent Frida, Isabel Leonard used her velvety mezzo to find the drama of the artist’s remembered torment as well as the undulating sensuality of her love for painting and colors.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026
Perhaps it’s that Manfred is so swaggeringly confident, Galitzine’s embodiment of fluid sensuality standing in stark contrast to Monroe’s stiff, anxious, breathy performance as Cherry.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 6, 2025
In portraiture, like Sargent’s Dr. Pozzi at Home or Raphael’s Portrait of a Cardinal, red can communicate faith, sensuality or power.
From Salon • May 17, 2024
"His surroundings must be his most effective defence for a record of arrogance, cruelty, sensuality and greed while in power at Madras," he wrote.
From BBC • Mar. 12, 2024
But his feebleness, crudeness, imperfection, his dearth and deficiency, his sensuality, hardness, love of material things, is insisted on, and cannot be exaggerated.
From Recollections and Impressions 1822-1890 by Frothingham, Octavius Brooks
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.