percept
/ˈpɝsɛpt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.78 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A perceived object as it exists in the mind of someone perceiving it; the mental impression that is the result of perceiving something.
Example Sentences
- "I shall, therefore, make no scruple in using the expression concept for the object of conception, and conception I shall exclusively employ to designate the act of conceiving. Whether it might not, in like manner, be proper to introduce the term percept for the object of perception, I shall not at present inquire."
- "It may even be that the percepts detected by one sense organ are experienced as having the modality standardly associated with another."
- "I see an inkstand on the table: that is a percept. Moving my head, I get a different percept of the inkstand."
- "So far as in that world it is a stable feature, holds ink, marks paper and obeys the guidance of a hand, it is a physical pen. [...] So far as it is instable, on the contrary, coming and going with the movements of my eyes, altering with what I call my fancy, continuous with subsequent experiences of its ‘having been’ (in the past tense), it is the percept of a pen in my mind."
- "Socrates remarks that when he is well he finds wine sweet, but when ill, sour. Here it is a change in the percipient that causes the change in the percept."
- "And is not the highest speculation of it percepted and perfected by manuall instruments, and those fallacious too, as themselves complain?"
Etymology
A learned borrowing, after concept, from Classical Latin perceptum (“a proposition, principle, general idea”), from the neuter of perceptus (“perceived”), the past participle of percipiō (“to perceive”); see perceive. Coined by the Scottish metaphysician Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (1788–1856), in Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, published posthumously in 1860 (see the quotation).
Word Breakdown
- Root: *keh₂p-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɝsɛpt/
- British English: /ˈpɜːsɛpt/