Advertisement - Continue reading below

Definition of "sensation" []

  • A perception associated with stimulation of a sense organ or with a specific body condition: the sensation of heat; a visual sensation. (noun)
  • The faculty to feel or perceive; physical sensibility: The patient has very little sensation left in the right leg. (noun)
  • An indefinite generalized body feeling: a sensation of lightness. (noun)
  • A state of heightened interest or emotion: "The anticipation produced in me a sensation somewhat between bliss and fear” ( James Weldon Johnson). (noun)
  • A state of intense public interest and excitement: "The purser made a sensation as sailors like to do, by predicting a storm” ( Evelyn Waugh). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "sensation" in a sentence
  • "Alas! it is the narrowness, selfishness, minuteness, of your sensation that you have to deplore in England at this day; —sensation which spends itself in bouquets and speeches; in revelings and junketings; in sham fights and gay puppet shows, while you can look on and see noble nations murdered, man by man, without an effort or a tear."
  • "Sexual excitement is accompanied throughout by a sensation of pleasure, specifically known as _voluptuous pleasure_, the _voluptuous sensation_, or simply _voluptuousness_ (in Latin, _libido sexualis_)."
  • "It is sensation viewed especially in regard to its object -- _representative sensation_, or the "sensible idea" of modern philosophy."