sensibility

sensibility

English

Etymology

sensible +‎ -ity, from Middle French sensibilité, and its source, Latin sēnsibilitās.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌsɛnsɪˈbɪlɪti/

• Audio (Berkshire)

  (file)

Noun

sensibility (countable and uncountable, plural sensibilities)

1. The ability to sense, feel or perceive; responsiveness to sensory stimuli; sensitivity. [from 15th c.]
   • 2011, William Thomson, Reprint of Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism, p. 204:

     The high sensibility of the divided ring electrometer renders this test really very easy […].

2. Emotional or artistic awareness; keen sensitivity to matters of feeling or creative expression. [from 17th c.]
   • 2015, Kathleen T. Galvin, Monica Prendergast, Poetic Inquiry II, p. 266:

     By poetic ethic I am speaking about the intention to act on, and incorporate into a narrative configuration, values and beliefs that promote a poetic ontology and a poetic sensibility.

3. (now rare, archaic) Excessive emotional awareness; the fact or quality of being overemotional. [from 18th c.]
   • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], published 1792, OCLC 5625662194:

     People of sensibility have seldom good tempers.

4. (in the plural) An acute awareness or feeling. [from 18th c.]
   • 2019, Li Huang; James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, DOI:10.1080/01434632.2019.1596115, page 11:

     However, given current sensibilities about individual privacy and data protection, the recording of oral data is becoming increasingly onerous for researchers[.]

   I apologize if I offended your sensibilities, but that's the truth of the matter.

5. (obsolete) The capacity to be perceived by the senses. [15th–17th c.]

Translations

ability to sense; responsiveness to stimuli

Finnish: herkkyys (fi), aistimiskyky German: Sensibilität (de) f, Empfindlichkeit (de) f, Empfindungsvermögen (de) n Romanian: sensibilitate (ro) f

emotional awareness

Finnish: tunneäly, tunnekyky German: Sensibilität (de) f, Empfindsamkeit (de) f Romanian: sensibilitate (ro) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Bulgarian: усет (bg) m (uset) Catalan: sensibilitat f Chinese: Mandarin: 感觉 (zh), 感受性 (zh), 知觉 (zh), 感性 (zh) Irish: céadfaíocht f, céadfacht f Japanese: 感覚 (ja) (kankaku), センス (ja) (sensu) Korean: 감각 (ko) (gamgak), 감수성 (ko) (gamsuseong), 감각력 (gamgangnyeok) Portuguese: sensibilidade (pt) f Russian: чуткость (ru) (čutkostʹ), чувства (ru) pl (čuvstva) Spanish: sensibilidad (es) f

Further reading

• "sensibility" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 280.