sentiment

American  

[sen-tuh-muhnt] / ˈsɛn tə mənt /

noun

1. an attitude toward something; regard; opinion.

2. a mental feeling; emotion.

   a sentiment of pity.

3. refined or tender emotion; manifestation of the higher or more refined feelings.

4. exhibition or manifestation of feeling or sensibility, or appeal to the tender emotions, in literature, art, or music.

5. a thought influenced by or proceeding from feeling or emotion.

6. the thought or feeling intended to be conveyed by words, acts, or gestures as distinguished from the words, acts, or gestures themselves.

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sentiment British  

/ ˈsɛntɪmənt /

noun

1. susceptibility to tender, delicate, or romantic emotion

   she has too much sentiment to be successful

2. (often plural) a thought, opinion, or attitude

3. exaggerated, overindulged, or mawkish feeling or emotion

4. an expression of response to deep feeling, esp in art or literature

5. a feeling, emotion, or awareness

   a sentiment of pity

6. a mental attitude modified or determined by feeling

   there is a strong revolutionary sentiment in his country

7. a feeling conveyed, or intended to be conveyed, in words

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Usage

What are other ways to say sentiment?

A sentiment is a mental feeling or tender emotion, or a thought proceeding from feeling or emotion. How is it different from feeling, emotion, and passion? Find out on Thesaurus.com.

Related Words

See opinion. Sentiment, sentimentality are terms for sensitiveness to emotional feelings. Sentiment is a sincere and refined sensibility, a tendency to be influenced by emotion rather than reason or fact: to appeal to sentiment. Sentimentality implies affected, excessive, sometimes mawkish sentiment: weak sentimentality.

Other Word Forms

• sentimentless adjective

Etymology

Origin of sentiment

First recorded in 1325–75; from Medieval Latin sentīmentum, equivalent to Latin sentī(re) “to feel” + -mentum -ment; replacing Middle English sentement, from Old French, from Medieval Latin, as above

Example Sentences

The Singapore dollar weakened slightly against its U.S. counterpart amid fluctuating market sentiment.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

Not only do they thrive on aggression but their technical riffs and roaring anti-authoritarian sentiment seem to be more vital now than ever.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026

Constellation has been pressured by weaker spending among Hispanic consumers, who account for roughly half of its beer customer base, as immigration raids and affordability issues weighed on the group’s sentiment.

From Barron's • Apr. 9, 2026

“While near-term sentiment will almost certainly be dictated by oil, we also flag underlying risk of the NA consumer to Europe, depending on how long the conflict lasts,” Chaiken wrote.

From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026

The general Soviet sentiment, often shared by the women soldiers themselves, was that although women had done their part to drive out the invading enemy, their real role was to nurture, not to kill.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein

Related Words

• attitude
• bias
• feeling
• idea
• opinion
• passion
• position
• tendency
• thought
• view