Adjacent Words

Sensibility definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SENSIBIL'ITY, n.
1. Susceptibility of impressions; the capacity for feeling or perceiving the impressions of external objects; applied to the animal bodies; as when we say, a frozen limb has lost its sensibility.
2. Acuteness of sensation; applied to the body.
3. Capacity of acuteness of perception; that quality of the soul which renders it susceptible of impressions; delicacy of feeling; as sensibility to pleasure or pain; sensibility to shame or praise; exquisite sensibility.
4. Actual feeling.
This adds to my great sensibility. Burke.
[This word is often used in this manner for sensation.]
5. It is sometimes used in the plural.
His sensibilities seem rather to have been those of patriotism, than of wounded pride.
Marshall.
Sensibilities unfriendly to happiness, may be acquired. Encyc.
6. Nice perception, so to speak, of a balance; that quality of a balance which renders it movable with the smallest weight, or the quality or state of any insrument that renders it easily affected; as the sensibility of a balance or of a thermometer.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: mental responsiveness and awareness [syn: sensibility, esthesia, aesthesia] [ant: insensibility]
2: refined sensitivity to pleasurable or painful impressions; "cruelty offended his sensibility"
3: (physiology) responsiveness to external stimuli; the faculty of sensation; "sensitivity to pain" [syn: sensitivity, sensitiveness, sensibility]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ties) Date: 15th century 1. ability to receive sensations ; sensitiveness <tactile sensibility> 2. peculiar susceptibility to a pleasurable or painful impression (as from praise or a slight) — often used in plural 3. awareness of and responsiveness toward something (as emotion in another) 4. refined or excessive sensitiveness in emotion and taste with especial responsiveness to the pathetic

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 capacity to feel (little finger lost its sensibility). 2 a openness to emotional impressions, susceptibility, sensitiveness (sensibility to kindness). b an exceptional or excessive degree of this (sense and sensibility). 3 (in pl.) a tendency to feel offended etc. Etymology: ME f. LL sensibilitas (as SENSIBLE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sensibility Sen`si*bil"i*ty, n.; pl. Sensibilities. [Cf. F. sensibilit['e], LL. sensibilitas.] 1. (Physiol.) The quality or state of being sensible, or capable of sensation; capacity to feel or perceive. 2. The capacity of emotion or feeling, as distinguished from the intellect and the will; peculiar susceptibility of impression, pleasurable or painful; delicacy of feeling; quick emotion or sympathy; as, sensibility to pleasure or pain; sensibility to shame or praise; exquisite sensibility; -- often used in the plural. ``Sensibilities so fine!'' --Cowper. The true lawgiver ought to have a heart full of sensibility. --Burke. His sensibilities seem rather to have been those of patriotism than of wounded pride. --Marshall. 3. Experience of sensation; actual feeling. This adds greatly to my sensibility. --Burke. 4. That quality of an instrument which makes it indicate very slight changes of condition; delicacy; as, the sensibility of a balance, or of a thermometer.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(sensibilities) 1. Sensibility is the ability to experience deep feelings. Everything he writes demonstrates the depth of his sensibility. N-UNCOUNT: usu supp N 2. Someone's sensibility is their tendency to be influenced or offended by things. The challenge offended their sensibilities. N-VAR: usu poss N

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Feeling, sensitiveness, susceptibility, impressibility. 2. Delicacy of feeling, tender feeling, quick emotion.

Moby Thesaurus

acuity, acumen, acuteness, adaptability, affectibility, affection, affectivity, agreeability, amenability, apperception, appreciation, appreciation of differences, appreciativeness, artistic judgment, astuteness, awareness, bendability, cogency, cognition, cognizance, connoisseurship, consciousness, critical niceness, criticalness, delicacy, discernment, discriminating taste, discriminatingness, discrimination, discriminativeness, ductibility, ductility, elasticity, emotion, emotions, extendibility, extensibility, facility, farseeingness, farsightedness, fastidiousness, feel, feeling, feelings, fictility, fine palate, finesse, flexibility, flexility, flexuousness, foresight, foresightedness, formativeness, give, heart, impressibility, impressionability, incisiveness, insight, judiciousness, keenness, limberness, limen, litheness, longheadedness, longsightedness, making distinctions, malleability, mindfulness, moldability, niceness of distinction, nicety, noesis, note, notice, openness to sensation, palate, penetration, perceptibility, perception, perceptiveness, percipience, perspicaciousness, perspicacity, perspicuity, perspicuousness, physical sensibility, plasticity, pliability, pliancy, providence, readiness of feeling, realization, receptiveness, receptivity, recognition, refined discrimination, refined palate, refinement, responsiveness, sagaciousness, sagacity, selectiveness, sensation level, sense, sensibilities, sensibleness, sensitiveness, sensitivity, sentience, sentiency, sentiments, sequacity, springiness, submissiveness, subtlety, suppleness, susceptibility, susceptivity, tact, tactfulness, taste, tensileness, tensility, threshold of sensation, tractability, tractility, trenchancy, willowiness