Definitions for: Sensation


[n] the faculty through which the external world is apprehended; "in the dark he had to depend on touch and on his senses of smell and hearing"
[n] an unelaborated elementary awareness of stimulation; "a sensation of touch"
[n] a general feeling of excitement and heightened interest; "anticipation produced in me a sensation somewhere between hope and fear"
[n] someone who is dazzlingly skilled in any field
[n] a state of widespread public excitement and interest; "the news caused a sensation"



Webster (1913) Definition: Sen*sa"tion, n. [Cf. F. sensation. See Sensate.]
1. (Physiol.) An impression, or the consciousness of an
impression, made upon the central nervous organ, through
the medium of a sensory or afferent nerve or one of the
organs of sense; a feeling, or state of consciousness,
whether agreeable or disagreeable, produced either by an
external object (stimulus), or by some change in the
internal state of the body.

Perception is only a special kind of knowledge, and
sensation a special kind of feeling. . . . Knowledge
and feeling, perception and sensation, though always
coexistent, are always in the inverse ratio of each
other. --Sir W.
Hamilton.

2. A purely spiritual or psychical affection; agreeable or
disagreeable feelings occasioned by objects that are not
corporeal or material.

3. A state of excited interest or feeling, or that which
causes it.

The sensation caused by the appearance of that work
is still remembered by many. --Brougham.

Syn: Perception.

Usage: Sensation, Perseption. The distinction between
these words, when used in mental philosophy, may be
thus stated; if I simply smell a rose, I have a
sensation; if I refer that smell to the external
object which occasioned it, I have a perception. Thus,
the former is mere feeling, without the idea of an
object; the latter is the mind's apprehension of some
external object as occasioning that feeling.
``Sensation properly expresses that change in the
state of the mind which is produced by an impression
upon an organ of sense (of which change we can
conceive the mind to be conscious, without any
knowledge of external objects). Perception, on the
other hand, expresses the knowledge or the intimations
we obtain by means of our sensations concerning the
qualities of matter, and consequently involves, in
every instance, the notion of externality, or outness,
which it is necessary to exclude in order to seize the
precise import of the word sensation.'' --Fleming.

Synonyms: ace, adept, genius, hotshot, maven, sense, sense datum, sense experience, sense impression, sensory faculty, sentience, sentiency, star, virtuoso, whiz, whizz, wiz, wizard

See Also: auditory sensation, excitation, excitement, expert, faculty, fervor, fervour, gustatory perception, gustatory sensation, inflammation, limen, masking, mental faculty, modality, module, odor, odour, olfactory perception, olfactory sensation, perception, sense modality, sensibility, sensitiveness, sensitivity, sensory system, smell, sound, stir, synaesthesia, synesthesia, taste, taste perception, taste sensation, threshold, track star, vision, visual sensation

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