Sentient

How to spell sentient

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sentient

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sentient mean?

1. adjectiveAble to perceive or feel things; having conscious awareness or sensation.

Sentient in a sentence

• The novel imagines a future where machines become fully sentient and demand rights.

• Animal welfare law now recognises that many creatures are sentient beings capable of suffering.

Where does sentient come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb sentire, which meant 'to feel, to perceive, or to sense'. Its present participle was sentiens, with the stem sentient-, literally describing something that is in the act of feeling or perceiving. English adopted the form in the seventeenth century, when writers needed a precise term for a creature capable of sensation and awareness rather than mere mechanical existence. The very same sentire root sits inside a whole family of familiar words, including 'sense', 'sentiment', 'consent', and even 'sentinel', the watchman who perceives danger. The spelling trap lives in that middle 'ti', which is pronounced like 'sh' yet must still be written with a t, mirroring relatives such as 'patient' and 'efficient'.

How the word is built

• senti- (from Latin sentire: to feel, perceive)
• -ent (adjective suffix: doing or being)