| English Dictionary |
PERCEPTIBLE
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| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does perceptible mean?
• PERCEPTIBLE (adjective)
The adjective PERCEPTIBLE has 2 senses:
1. capable of being perceived by the mind or senses
2. easily seen or detected
Familiarity information: PERCEPTIBLE used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Capable of being perceived by the mind or senses
Context example:
a perceptible sense of expectation in the court
Similar:
detectable; noticeable (capable of being detected)
discernible (capable of being perceived clearly)
faint; weak (deficient in magnitude; barely perceptible; lacking clarity or brightness or loudness etc)
palpable ((medicine) can be felt by palpation)
perceivable (capable of being perceived especially by sight or hearing)
recognizable (easily perceived; easy to become aware of)
sensible (readily perceived by the senses)
Also:
audible; hearable (heard or perceptible by the ear)
seeable; visible (capable of being seen; or open to easy view)
Antonym:
imperceptible (impossible or difficult to perceive by the mind or senses)
Derivation:
perceive (become conscious of)
perceptibility (the property of being perceptible by the mind or the senses)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Easily seen or detected
Synonyms:
detectable; perceptible
Context example:
he continued after a perceptible pause
Similar:
noticeable (capable or worthy of being noticed)
Derivation:
perceive (to become aware of through the senses)
perceptibility (the property of being perceptible by the mind or the senses)
Context examples
The string was of the quality which is used by sailmakers aboard ship, and at once a whiff of the sea was perceptible in our investigation.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Whatever—whoever you are—be perceptible to the touch or I cannot live!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Planets around other stars, called exoplanets, are barely perceptible next to their brilliant stars.
(Lone Planetary-Mass Object Found in Family of Stars, NASA)
Her start was perceptible only to herself; but she instantly felt that she was the greatest simpleton in the world, the most unaccountable and absurd!
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Something perceptible by one or more of the senses, especially by vision or touch; a material thing.
(Object, NCI Thesaurus)
Yes, cried he in the same eager tone, with all and every thing belonging to it;—in no one convenience or INconvenience about it, should the least variation be perceptible.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
The great minister showed perceptible hesitation.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Wolf Larsen did not seem affected, however; though I noticed, when we returned to the deck, a slight twitching of the nostrils, a perceptible quickness of movement.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Objective evidence of bacterial infection perceptible to the examiner by laboratory procedure.
(Bacteriological Finding, NCI Thesaurus)
Lucy's heart beat a trifle more audibly to the stethoscope, and her lungs had a perceptible movement.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Whatever joy you seek, it can be achieved by yourself; whatever misery you seek, it can be found by yourself." (Bhutanese proverb)
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"Hasty speed is rarely good" (Dutch proverb)