sensuous
Americanadjective
-
gratifying the senses.
You can wear your denim jacket, but the sensuous look and feel of a velvet blazer will elevate your outfit.
-
readily affected through the senses; sensual; physical.
a sensuous temperament;
a sensuous young man.
- Synonyms:
- sensitive, feeling, voluptuous, luxurious, luscious, palatable, pleasurable, pleasing, pleasant, gratifying
-
of or relating to the senses or objects that can be perceived by the senses; sensory; material.
His observations based on sensuous experience seem self-evident, but the subsequent speculations are far-fetched.
Aristotelian scholarly tradition subjected the sensuous qualities of music to mathematical and metaphysical analysis.
adjective
-
aesthetically pleasing to the senses
-
appreciative of or moved by qualities perceived by the senses
-
of, relating to, or derived from the senses
Related Words
See sensual.
Other Word Forms
- antisensuous adjective
- antisensuousness noun
- hypersensuous adjective
- hypersensuousness noun
- nonsensuous adjective
- nonsensuousness noun
- sensuosity noun
- sensuously adverb
- sensuousness noun
- subsensuous adjective
- subsensuousness noun
- supersensuous adjective
- supersensuousness noun
- unsensuous adjective
- unsensuousness noun
Etymology
Origin of sensuous
First recorded in 1630–40; from Latin sēnsus “sensation, feeling, any of the five senses, awareness”; see origin at sense, -ous
Explanation
Anything that is pleasing to the senses can be called sensuous. The feel of a soft cashmere sweater on your skin, the taste of dark chocolate, even the smell of your favorite person — all of these can be sensuous experiences. Sensuous describes anything that feels, tastes, smells, looks, or sounds good. Eating delicious food or relaxing in a warm bath are sensuous activities. But something intellectually satisfying, like doing a crossword puzzle or solving a math problem, is not exactly sensuous, even if you really like doing it. Use sensuous to describe stuff that makes your five senses happy.
Vocabulary lists containing sensuous
Common Senses: Sent, Sens ("Feel")
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
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Warm-up, List 11
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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.
The film boasts sensuous formal achievements, from the glorious alpine shots to the experimental sound design of a raging storm and the dizzying angles deployed by Kirsanoff, an Estonian Jew and Parisian avant-gardist.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 14, 2026
Initially, the prose is rich and sensuous but becomes less sumptuous as the story progresses.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 12, 2024
Zhang evokes the sensuous delight of working with fresh ingredients in a time when certain flavors are essentially extinct.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 26, 2023
When he notes that a sensuous prose stylist “wants subject and style to be allied and affianced,” he reenacts the very resonances he praises.
From Washington Post • Apr. 20, 2023
We can readily understand Michelangelo’s discomfort, for Titian has rephrased his sculpture in utterly sensuous terms through the painterly application of sonorous color that is characteristic of his work.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
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.
