Sensation \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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
2. A purely spiritual or psychical affection; agreeable or
disagreeable feelings occasioned by objects that are not
corporeal or material.
[1913 Webster]
3. A state of excited interest or feeling, or that which
causes it.
[1913 Webster]
The sensation caused by the appearance of that work
is still remembered by many. --Brougham.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
sensation
n 1: an unelaborated elementary awareness of stimulation; "a
sensation of touch" [syn: sense experience, sense
impression, sense datum]
2: someone who is dazzlingly skilled in any field [syn: ace,
adept, champion, maven, mavin, virtuoso, genius,
hotshot, star, superstar, whiz, whizz, wizard,
wiz]
3: a general feeling of excitement and heightened interest;
"anticipation produced in me a sensation somewhere between
hope and fear"
4: a state of widespread public excitement and interest; "the
news caused a sensation"
5: 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" [syn: sense, sentience, sentiency,
sensory faculty]
WordNet (r) 2.0
111 Moby Thesaurus words for "sensation":
affect, affection, amazement, astonishing thing, astonishment,
awareness, bang, bean, best seller, big hit, bomb, bombshell, boot,
brain, brilliant success, charge, commotion, consciousness,
curiosity, emotion, emotional charge, emotional shade, encephalon,
exception, excitement, experience, fad, feeling, feeling tone,
flush, foreboding, funny feeling, gas, gasser, gazingstock,
gray matter, great success, gut reaction, head, heartthrob, hit,
hunch, impression, jollies, kick, killing, lift, marvel,
marvelment, meteoric success, miracle, momentary success, noddle,
noggin, nonesuch, noodle, organ of thought, passion, pate,
perception, phenomenon, portent, prescience, presentiment, prodigy,
profound sense, quite a thing, quiver, rarity, reaction,
resounding triumph, response, riot, roaring success, rush,
rush of emotion, sconce, seat of thought, sense, sensibility,
sensitiveness, sensitivity, sensorium, sensory, sentiment, shiver,
shudder, sight, smash, smash hit, sneaking suspicion,
something else, spectacle, stir, stunner, success,
surge of emotion, susceptibility, suspicion, thrill, tingle,
tingling, titillation, tremor, tremor of excitement, triumph,
undercurrent, wonder, wonderful thing, wonderment, wow
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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