Meaning

(countable, uncountable, often in the plural) Emotions or feelings arising from or relating to aesthetic or moral standards, especially those which are sensitive and thus likely to be hurt or offended..

Definitions by Sense

1. (countable, uncountable, often in the plural) Emotions or feelings arising from or relating to aesthetic or moral standards, especially those which are sensitive and thus likely to be hurt or offended.
2. (uncountable) The ability to feel, perceive, or sense; responsiveness to sensory stimuli; sensitivity; also, the degree to which someone or something (especially a sensory organ or tissue) is able to respond to sensory stimuli.
3. (uncountable) The quality of being easily affected by external forces or stimuli; also, of a measuring instrument: the quality of being able to detect small changes in the environment.
4. (uncountable) Keen sensitivity to matters of creative expression or feeling; artistic or emotional awareness.
5. Awareness; also, understanding.
6. The capacity of something to be perceived by the senses; perceptibility.
7. Of a plant or one of its parts: the ability to move in response to a stimulus.
8. (uncountable, philosophy) The ability to perceive or sense as opposed to the ability to understand; also, in the philosophy of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): emotion or feeling as opposed to the will.

Example Sentences

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

There is no way more sure of rousing the sensibilities of a commercial people, than by touching their pockets.

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

Many earnest consumers on the Right feel so legitimately embattled by the nonstop streaming feed of hate speech and psyoppery directed at them that they think they have no choice but to reconfigure their artistic sensibilities accordingly.

[B]y the ſharpnes therof [i.e., of “fumosity” caused by undigested meat], it prycketh and annoyeth the ſynewes, whiche make ſenſibilitie, the rootes of whome, ar in the brayn, and from thenſe paſſeth through all the body.

Perſons in fevers, and I believe, in moſt maniacal caſes, experience great torment from their preternatural acuteneſs. An increaſed, no leſs than an impaired ſenſibility, induces a ſtate of diſeaſe and ſuffering.

About an Attempt to examine the Motions and Senſibility of the Carteſian Materia ſubtilis, or the Æther, with a pair of Bellovvs (made of a Bladder) in the exhausted Receiver [chapter name].

The high sensibility of the divided ring electrometer renders this test really very easy, as not more than from ten to twenty cells are required; […]

Word Forms

• sensibilities

Synonyms for sensibility

Antonyms for sensibility

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When Should You Use Sensibility?

Use sensibility when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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