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Definition of perception - 6 dictionary results
Perception
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per⋅cep⋅tion

  [per-sep-shuhn]
Use perception in a Sentence
–noun
1. the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding.
2. immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities; insight; intuition; discernment: an artist of rare perception.
3. the result or product of perceiving, as distinguished from the act of perceiving; percept.
4. Psychology. a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present.
5. Law. the taking into possession of rents, crops, profits, etc.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME percepcioun (< OF percepcïon) < L perceptiōn- (s. of perceptiō) comprehension, lit., a taking in. See percept, -ion

Related forms:
per⋅cep⋅tion⋅al, adjective

Synonyms:
1. awareness, sense, recognition.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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per·cep·tion   (pər-sěp'shən)   
n.  
  1. The process, act, or faculty of perceiving.
  2. The effect or product of perceiving.
  3. Psychology
    1. Recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based chiefly on memory.
    2. The neurological processes by which such recognition and interpretation are effected.
    3. Insight, intuition, or knowledge gained by perceiving.
    4. The capacity for such insight.
    1. Insight, intuition, or knowledge gained by perceiving.
    2. The capacity for such insight.

[Middle English percepcioun, from Old French percepcion, from Latin perceptiō, perceptiōn-, from perceptus, past participle of percipere, to perceive; see perceive.]
per·cep'tion·al adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Perception

Per*cep"tion\, n. [L. perceptio: cf. F. perception. See Perceive.]

1. The act of perceiving; cognizance by the senses or intellect; apperhension by the bodily organs, or by the mind, of what is presented to them; discernment; apperhension; cognition.

2. (Metaph.) The faculty of perceiving; the faculty, or peculiar part, of man's constitution by which he has knowledge through the medium or instrumentality of the bodily organs; the act of apperhending material objects or qualities through the senses; -- distinguished from conception. --Sir W. Hamilton.

Matter hath no life nor perception, and is not conscious of its own existence. --Bentley.

3. The quality, state, or capability, of being affected by something external; sensation; sensibility. [Obs.]

This experiment discovereth perception in plants. --Bacon.

4. An idea; a notion. [Obs.] --Sir M. Hale.

Note: "The word perception is, in the language of philosophers previous to Reid, used in a very extensive signification. By Descartes, Malebranche, Locke, Leibnitz, and others, it is employed in a sense almost as unexclusive as consciousness, in its widest signification. By Reid this word was limited to our faculty acquisitive of knowledge, and to that branch of this faculty whereby, through the senses, we obtain a knowledge of the external world. But his limitation did not stop here. In the act of external perception he distinguished two elements, to which he gave the names of perception and sensation. He ought perhaps to have called these perception proper and sensation proper, when employed in his special meaning." --Sir W. Hamilton.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : perception
Spanish: percepción, perspicacia, agudeza,
German: das Wahrnehmungsvermögen,
Japanese: 知覚
More Translations »

perception 
1483, "receiving, collection," from L. perceptionem (nom. perceptio) "perception, apprehension, a taking," from percipere "perceive" (see perceive). First used in the more literal sense of the L. word; in secondary sense, "the taking cognizance of," it is recorded in Eng. from 1611. Meaning "intuitive or direct recognition of some innate quality" is from 1827.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: per·cep·tion
Pronunciation: p&r-'sep-sh&n
Function: noun
: awareness of the elements of environment through physicalsensation perception> perception of the extremity after amputation is felt by 98% of patients —Orthopedics & Traumatic Surgery>—compare SENSATION 1a
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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perception per·cep·tion (pər-sěp'shən)
n.

  1. The process, act, or faculty of perceiving.
  2. Recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based chiefly on memory.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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