sensory

English

Alternative forms

• sensoric

Etymology

From sense ‎ -ory.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛn.sə.ɹi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnsəɹi

Adjective

sensory (not comparable)

1. Of the physical senses or sensation.
   • 1665, Thomas Bartholin, chapter VI, in anonymous translator, Bartholinus Anatomy, London: Nich. Culpeper and Abdiah Cole, translation of Anatomia (in New Latin), page 142:

     The Species of things are perceived rather there whereto they are carried. But every ſenſory Nerve each in its place carries the Species to the beginning of the ſpinal Marrow, and therefore each in their place are judged and received by the Soul, in the beginning of the ſpinal Marrow.

   • 1873, Alpheus Spring Packard, “Hints on the Ancestry of Insects”, in Our Common Insects: A Popular Account of the Insects of Our Fields, Forests, Gardens and Houses, Salem: Naturalists’ Agency, page 174:

     It is evident that in the ancestor of these two groups the first pair of appendages became early adapted for purely sensory purposes, and were naturally projected far in advance of the mouth, forming the antennæ.

   • 1991, Tetsuo Matsui, Susumu Kato, Susan E. Smith, “Biology and Potential Use of Pacific Grenadier, Coryphaenoides acrolepis, off California”, in Marine Fisheries Review‎^[1], volume 52, number 3, →ISSN, page 13:

     Findings of the sensory analysis panel at NWFSC [the Northwest Fisheries Science Center], which tested and classified flesh characteristics of both Pacific and giant grenadier, are averaged and summarized in Table 10.

2. (neuroanatomy) Conveying nerve impulses from the sense organs to the nerve centers.

   Synonym: afferent

   sensory neurons

Usage notes

Prefix combining form is sensori-, as in sensorimotor.

Synonyms

• sensely

Derived terms

• audiosensory
• autonomous sensory meridian response
• biosensory
• bisensory
• chemosensory
• dual sensory impaired
• electrosensory
• extrasensory
• genitosensory
• hemisensory
• hygrosensory
• intersensory
• laterosensory
• magnetosensory
• mechanosensory
• metabosensory
• monosensory
• multisensory
• neurosensory
• nonsensory
• orosensory
• osmosensory
• parasensory
• photosensory
• polysensory
• prosensory
• psychosensory
• sensori-
• sensorily
• sensory bin
• sensory dep
• sensory deprivation
• sensory garden
• sensory gating
• sensory hypersensitivity
• sensory memory
• sensory neuron
• sensory overload
• sensory play
• sensory processing sensitivity
• sensory receptor
• sensory root
• somatic sensory cortex
• somatosensory
• subsensory
• supersensory
• suprasensory
• thermosensory
• trisensory
• unisensory
• viscerosensory
• visuosensory

 

Related terms

• sensible
• sensual
• sensuous

Translations

of the senses or sensation

• Afrikaans: sensories
• Arabic: حِسِّيّ m (ḥissiyy), حِسِّيَّة f (ḥissiyya)
• Bulgarian: сетивен (bg) (setiven)
• Catalan: sensorial (ca), sensori (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 感覺的／感觉的 (zh) (gǎnjuéde)

• Czech: smyslový (cs) m
• Finnish: aisti-, aistimuksellinen, aistinvarainen (fi), sensorinen
• French: sensoriel (fr)
• German: Sinnes-, sensorisch
• Greek: αισθητήριος (el) m (aisthitírios)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Ido: sensala (io)
• Irish: céadfach, céadfaíoch
• Italian: sensoriale (it)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sansemessig, sensorisk

  Nynorsk: sansemessig, sensorisk

• Portuguese: sensorial (pt)
• Romanian: senzorial (ro)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: sensorial (es), sensorio (es)
• Turkish: duyusal (tr), duyumsal (tr)

Noun

sensory (plural sensories)

1. (biology, dated) The sensorium.
   • 1704, Sir Isaac Newton, Opticks, 3rd edition, London: W. and J. Innys, published 1721, page 344:

     Is not the Senſory of Animals that place to which the ſenſitive Subſtance is preſent, and into which the ſenſible Species of Things are carried through the Nerves and Brain, that there they may be perceived by their immediate preſence to that ſubſtance ?

2. (obsolete) An organ or faculty of sense.
   • a. 1626, Francis Bacon, “Consent of Visibles, and Audibles”, in Sylva Sylvarvm: Or, A Naturall Historie, 3rd edition, London: William Rawley, published 1631, page 68:

     BOth of them ſpread themſelues in Round, and fill a whole Floare or Orbe, vnto certaine Limits : and are carried a great way : And doe languiſh and leſſen by degrees, according to the Diſtance of the Obiects from the Senſories.

   • 1689–90, John Evelyn, edited by William Bray, Memoirs of John Evelyn, new edition, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, published 1827, page 292:

     Dr. Burnet, late Bishop of Sarum, on 4 Heb. v. 13, anatomically describing the texture of the eye […] so God who made this sensorie, did with the greatest ease and at once see all that was don thro’ the vast universe, even to the very thought as well as action.

Derived terms

• sensorial

References

• “sensory”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “sensory”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• syrones