sentient

adjective

sen·​tient ˈsen(t)-sh(ē-)ənt  ˈsen-tē-ənt 

1

: capable of sensing or feeling : conscious of or responsive to the sensations of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, or smelling

sentient beings

Some among the group of potters … speak of the kiln as though it were sentient.

—Barry Lopez

But the really intriguing question is a hypothetical one. What would Google's response be if it realised that it actually had a sentient machine on its hands?

—John Naughton

But the terrible silence and emptiness seemed to symbolize her future—she felt as though the house, the street, the world were all empty, and she alone left sentient in a lifeless universe.

—Edith Wharton

2

: aware

sentient of the danger posed by the approaching hurricane

But the strange thing is that a boy so sentient of his surroundings should have been so insensible to the real world about him.

—W. A. White

3

: finely sensitive in perception or feeling

a sentient author with beautiful prose

As every sentient diplomat knows, diplomacy uses the reputation of power to achieve what power itself often cannot achieve, or can achieve only at greater and sometimes excessive cost.

—Colin L. Powell

sentiently adverb

Did you know?

You may have guessed that sentient has something to do with the senses. The initial spelling sent- or sens- is often a giveaway for such a meaning. A sentient being is one who perceives and responds to sensations of whatever kind—sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell. Sentient ultimately comes from the Latin verb sentire, which means "to feel" or "to perceive," and is related to the noun sensus, meaning "sense." A few related English words are sentiment and sentimental, which have to do with emotions, sensual, which relates to more physical sensations, and the trio of assent, consent, and dissent, which involve one's expressions of agreement (or disagreement in the case of dissent) in thought and feeling with another.

Synonyms

• alive
• apprehensive
• aware
• cognizant
• conscious
• mindful
• sensible
• ware
• witting

Examples of sentient in a Sentence

sentient of the danger posed by the approaching hurricane

Recent Examples on the Web

And consent or reciprocity isn’t possible when only one participant is sentient. —Ethan Brooks, The Atlantic, 14 Dec. 2023

Factory farming values profit over sentient beings. —WSJ, 10 Dec. 2023

Perhaps the problem is that menacing, sentient AI characters aren’t new, even if ChatGPT is — 2001: A Space Odyssey crushed that trope with HAL 9000 nearly six decades ago and Hollywood’s been doing them ever since. —James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Dec. 2023

The movie paints a future in which robots are sentient, emotional and even spiritual beings who’ve been integrated into human society as co-workers, assistants, civil servants and romantic partners. —Josh Rottenberg, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2023

In it, an AI known as The Entity becomes fully sentient and threatens to use its all-knowing intelligence to control military superpowers all over the world. —WIRED, 3 Nov. 2023

That's according to deputy White House chief of staff Bruce Reed, who told the Associated Press that Biden recently watched the film — which centers on a sentient AI that hijacks and sinks a submarine — at Camp David. —Virginia Chamlee, Peoplemag, 1 Nov. 2023

The scarab quickly responds to him, his entire family watching in horror as the critter fuses onto his spine, forming a symbiotic relationship that affords Jaime the powers of a sentient battle suit complete with a Siri-style intelligence, Khaji-Da (voiced by Becky G). —Katie Walsh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Aug. 2023

That, Lemoine said, was the secret — the reason top computer scientists were able to say that AI wasn’t sentient. —Josh Morgenthau, Washington Post, 5 Aug. 2023

See More

Word History

Etymology

Latin sentient-, sentiens, present participle of sentire to perceive, feel

First Known Use

1604, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

sentient

adjective

sen·​tient ˈsen-ch(ē-)ənt 

1

: capable of sensing or feeling

sentient beings

2

: aware

sentient of one's surroundings

Medical Definition

sentient

adjective

sen·​tient ˈsen-ch(ē-)ənt  ˈsent-ē-ənt 

: responsive to or conscious of sense impressions

sentiently adverb