sentient

From Latin sentiēns (“feeling, perceiving”), present active participle of sentiō.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛn.ti.ənt/^[1]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛn.ʃi.ənt/, /ˈsɛn.ʃənt/^[1]

sentient (comparative more sentient, superlative most sentient)

1. Experiencing sensation, thought, or feeling.

   Synonym: aware

   Consider fish, who are apparently sentient yet cognitively extremely primitive in comparison with humans.

   Obviously, other morally relevant considerations would apply to the case of a sentient fetus, as by acquiring sentience it acquires interests and moral status.

2. Able to consciously perceive through the use of sense faculties.

   Synonyms: sensate, aware

   Antonym: insensate

4. (loosely, chiefly science fiction) Possessing human-like awareness and intelligence.

   Synonyms: sapient; see also Thesaurus:self-aware

   • 2000 April, Bill Joy, “Why the Future Doesn't Need Us”, in Wired‎^[1]:

     While I had heard such talk before, I had always felt that sentient robots were in the realm of science fiction. But now, from someone I respected [Ray Kurzweil], I was hearing a strong argument that they were a near-term possibility.

   • 2002, André Bormanis, “Silent Enemy”, in Star Trek: Enterprise, season 1, episode 12, spoken by Jonathan Archer:

     Not even a microbe? I don't want to blow up something that could evolve into a sentient species in a couple of billion years.

   • 2022 June 14, Toby Walsh, “Labelling Google’s LaMDA chatbot as sentient is fanciful. But it’s very human to be taken in by machines”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     [Blake] Lemoine has been placed on “paid administrative leave” after publishing a transcript of conversations with LaMDA which he claims support his belief that the chatbot is sentient and comparable to a seven- or eight-year-old child. […] While Lemoine no doubt genuinely believes his claims, LaMDA is likely to be as sentient as a traffic light.

   • 2022 August 5, Cade Metz, “A.I. Is Not Sentient. Why Do People Say It Is?”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     After more than 25 years as an artificial intelligence researcher […] Dr. Goertzel knew he had finally reached the end goal: Desdemona, a machine he had built, was sentient. But a few minutes later, he realized this was nonsense.

• sapient

• conscient

sentient (plural sentients)

1. Lifeform with the capability to feel sensation, such as pain.
2. (loosely, chiefly science fiction) An intelligent, self-aware being.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sentient

   • 1965, Philip José Farmer, The Maker of Universes:

     The merpeople and the sentients who lived on the beach often hitched rides on these creatures, steering them by pressure on exposed nerve centers.

• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2026), “sentient adj.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2026), “sentient n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.
• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “sentient”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 180–181.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈsɛn.ti.ɛnt]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsɛn.t͡si.ent]

sentient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of sentiō