What does perceive mean?

Definitions for perceive
pərˈsivper·ceive

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word perceive.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. perceive, comprehendverb

    to become aware of through the senses

    "I could perceive the ship coming over the horizon"

  2. perceiveverb

    become conscious of

    "She finally perceived the futility of her protest"

Wiktionary

  1. perceiveverb

    To see, to be aware of, to understand.

  2. Etymology: From perceiven, from percevoir, perceveir, from percipere, past participle perceptus, from per + capere; see capable. Compare conceive, deceive, receive.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. To PERCEIVEverb

    Etymology: percipio, Lat.

    Consider,
    When you above perceive me like a crow,
    That it is place which lessens and sets off. William Shakespeare.

    Jesus perceived in his spirit, that they so reasoned within themselves. Mark ii. 8.

    His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not. Job xiv. 21.

    ’Till we ourselves see it with our own eyes, and perceive it by our own understandings, we are still in the dark. John Locke.

    How do they come to know that themselves think; when they themselves do not perceive it. John Locke.

    The upper regions of the air perceive the collection of the matter of tempests before the air here below. Francis Bacon.

Wikipedia

  1. perceive

    Perception (from Latin perceptio 'gathering, receiving') is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system, which in turn result from physical or chemical stimulation of the sensory system. Vision involves light striking the retina of the eye; smell is mediated by odor molecules; and hearing involves pressure waves. Perception is not only the passive receipt of these signals, but it is also shaped by the recipient's learning, memory, expectation, and attention. Sensory input is a process that transforms this low-level information to higher-level information (e.g., extracts shapes for object recognition). The process that follows connects a person's concepts and expectations (or knowledge), restorative and selective mechanisms (such as attention) that influence perception. Perception depends on complex functions of the nervous system, but subjectively seems mostly effortless because this processing happens outside conscious awareness. Since the rise of experimental psychology in the 19th century, psychology's understanding of perception has progressed by combining a variety of techniques. Psychophysics quantitatively describes the relationships between the physical qualities of the sensory input and perception. Sensory neuroscience studies the neural mechanisms underlying perception. Perceptual systems can also be studied computationally, in terms of the information they process. Perceptual issues in philosophy include the extent to which sensory qualities such as sound, smell or color exist in objective reality rather than in the mind of the perceiver.Although people traditionally viewed the senses as passive receptors, the study of illusions and ambiguous images has demonstrated that the brain's perceptual systems actively and pre-consciously attempt to make sense of their input. There is still active debate about the extent to which perception is an active process of hypothesis testing, analogous to science, or whether realistic sensory information is rich enough to make this process unnecessary.The perceptual systems of the brain enable individuals to see the world around them as stable, even though the sensory information is typically incomplete and rapidly varying. Human and other animal brains are structured in a modular way, with different areas processing different kinds of sensory information. Some of these modules take the form of sensory maps, mapping some aspect of the world across part of the brain's surface. These different modules are interconnected and influence each other. For instance, taste is strongly influenced by smell.

ChatGPT

  1. perceive

    To perceive means to become aware or conscious of something through the senses such as sight, sound, touch, smell, or taste. It also refers to the interpretation or understanding of information or circumstances, based on one's own mental and emotional processing.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Perceiveverb

    to obtain knowledge of through the senses; to receive impressions from by means of the bodily organs; to take cognizance of the existence, character, or identity of, by means of the senses; to see, hear, or feel; as, to perceive a distant ship; to perceive a discord

  2. Perceiveverb

    to take intellectual cognizance of; to apprehend by the mind; to be convinced of by direct intuition; to note; to remark; to discern; to see; to understand

  3. Perceiveverb

    to be affected of influented by

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Perceive

    per-sēv′, v.t. to become aware of through the senses: to get knowledge of by the mind: to see: to understand: to discern.—adj. Perceiv′able (same as Perceptible).—adv. Perceiv′ably (same as Perceptibly).—ns. Perceiv′er; Perceiv′ing (Bacon), perception. [O. Fr. percever—L. percipĕre, perceptumper, perfectly, capĕre, to take.]

Editors Contribution

  1. perceive

    To be aware of through the senses.

    He did perceive her intention accurately as they were so loving towards each other.


    Submitted by MaryC on January 12, 2020  

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Verbs Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'perceive' in Verbs Frequency: #573

How to pronounce perceive?

How to say perceive in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of perceive in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of perceive in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of perceive in a Sentence

  1. Mark Jones:

    A lot depends not on chronological age but how you appear and what people perceive your health to be, the place [ age ] really affects is the issue of stamina. It’s a lot easier to barnstorm across United States when you are in your 40’s than when you are in your late 60’s. It requires a combination of drive but also stamina and the advantage Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio would have is being approximately 20 years their junior.

  2. Brad Bell:

    We've found that the more isolation that employees experience or perceive, that has a negative impact on a number of important outcomes... their satisfaction with their work, i think it can certainly lead to stress. It can undermine wellbeing.

  3. François Fénelon:

    Children are excellent observers, and will often perceive your slightest defects. In general, those who govern children, forgive nothing in them, but everything in themselves.

  4. John Drury:

    Some people will carry on, will continue to wear masks and to distance and they might perceive others as selfish for not doing so ; those who don't do so might see others as overanxious, solidarity is good for us, social support is good for us and those around us. It will be a source of distress for a lot of people to have that level of conflict.

  5. Ralph Judson Smith:

    If you can perceive beauty, then for you the world is a beautiful place. And you are going to make it better.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

perceive#10000#15304#100000

Translations for perceive

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for perceive »

Translation

Find a translation for the perceive definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"perceive." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/perceive>.

Discuss these perceive definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for perceive? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Image or illustration of

    perceive

    Credit »

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Browse Definitions.net

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    something (a term or expression or concept) that has a reciprocal relation to something else
    A canopy
    B ignominy
    C reciprocal
    D peccadillo

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for perceive: