sensibility

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˌsɛnsɪˈbɪlɪti/
Audio (Southern England): (file)

Noun

sensibility (countable and uncountable, plural sensibilities)

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, page 204:
  The high sensibility of the divided ring electrometer renders this test really very easy […].
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, page 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.
(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, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC:
  People of sensibility have seldom good tempers.
(in the plural) An acute awareness or feeling. [from 18th c.]
I apologize if I offended your sensibilities, but that's the truth of the matter.
- 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 11:
  However, given current sensibilities about individual privacy and data protection, the recording of oral data is becoming increasingly onerous for researchers[.]
(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
Greek: ευαισθησία (el) f (evaisthisía)
Romanian: sensibilitate (ro) f
Swedish: känslighet (sv) c

emotional awareness

Finnish: tunneäly, tunnekyky
German: Sensibilität (de) f, Empfindsamkeit (de) f
Greek: ευαισθησία (el) f (evaisthisía)
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) (gǎnjué), 感受性 (zh), 知觉 (zh) (zhījué), 感性 (zh) (gǎnxìng)
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