Meanings
present singular third person perceives · participle present perceiving · participle past perceived · past perceived · alternative perceave
- transitiveTo become aware of, through the physical senses, to see; to understand.
Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 14:73 more examples
Morton was in fearful time pressure and at first did not realize he was mated. He snatched up his King and swung it around wildly, finally perceiving that there was no square for the critter,
1938 May, Fred Reinfeld, “The US Championship Tournament”, in Chess ReviewThen our first effort must be to identify the actual words. Only after recognizing them individually can we begin to try to understand them, to struggle with perceiving what they mean.
1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 17Numerous experimental tests and other observations have been offered in favor of animal mind reading, and although many scientists are skeptical, others assert that humans are not the only species capable of representing what others do and don’t perceive and know.
2012 March-April, Colin Allen, “Do I See What You See?”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 26 Apr 2012, page 168 - To interpret something in a particular way.
John was perceived to be a coward by his comrades
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinpercipiō
- Old Frenchpercevoir
- Middle Englishperceyven
- Englishperceive
From Middle English perceyven, borrowed from Old French percevoir, perceveir, from Latin percipiō, past participle perceptus (“take hold of, obtain, receive, observe”), from per (“by, through”) + capiō (“to take”); see capable. Compare conceive, deceive, receive.
More words from Middle English, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek αἰσθάνομαι, ὁράω
- αἰσθάνομαι (aisthánomai)to become aware of
- ὁράω (horáō)to become aware of
- μανθάνω (manthánō)to become aware of
Arabic أَدْرَكَ, وَعَى
- أَدْرَكَ (ʔadraka)to become aware of
- وَعَى (waʕā)to become aware of
- فَهِمَ (fahima)to become aware of
Bulgarian възприе́мам, възприе́ма
- възприе́мам (văzpriémam)to become aware of
- възприе́ма (văzpriéma)to become aware of
- разби́рам (razbíram)to become aware of
- разбера́ (razberá)to become aware of
Catalan percebre
- percebreto become aware of
Chinese Mandarin 察覺 /察觉, 感知
- 察覺 /察觉 (chájué)to become aware of
- 感知 (gǎnzhī)to become aware of
- 知覺 /知觉 (zhījué)to become aware of
Czech vnímat
- vnímatto become aware of
Danish begribe
- begribeto become aware of
Dutch waarnemen
- waarnemento become aware of
Esperanto percepti, senti
- perceptito become aware of
- sentito become aware of
Estonian tajuma
- tajumato become aware of
Finnish huomata, havaita
- huomatato become aware of
- havaitato become aware of
- tajutato become aware of
- oivaltaato become aware of
- hahmottaato become aware of
French percevoir
- percevoirto become aware of
German wahrnehmen
- wahrnehmento become aware of
Greek αντιλαμβάνομαι
- αντιλαμβάνομαι (antilamvánomai)to become aware of
Hungarian felfog, észlel
- felfogto become aware of
- észlelto become aware of
Icelandic skynja
- skynjato become aware of
Irish airigh
- airighto become aware of
Italian percepire
- percepireto become aware of
Japanese 知覚する, 認める
- 知覚する (chikaku suru)to become aware of
- 認める (mitomeru)to become aware of
- 気付く (kidzuku)to become aware of
- 感知する (kanchi suru)to become aware of
Korean 감지하다, 지각하다
- 감지하다 (gamjihada)to become aware of
- 지각하다 (jigakhada)to become aware of
Latin sāgiō, video
- sāgiōto become aware of
- videoto become aware of
- dispicioto become aware of
- dispectoto become aware of
Māori mau
- mauto become aware of
Persian درک کردن
- درک کردنto become aware of
Polish dostrzegać, dostrzec
- dostrzegaćto become aware of
- dostrzecto become aware of
Portuguese perceber, entender
- perceberto become aware of
- entenderto become aware of
- compreenderto become aware of
Romanian realiza, pricepe
- realizato become aware of
- pricepeto become aware of
- înțelegeto become aware of
Russian воспринима́ть, восприня́ть
- воспринима́ть (vosprinimátʹ)to become aware of
- восприня́ть (vosprinjátʹ)to become aware of
Scottish Gaelic fairich
- fairichto become aware of
Slovak vnímať
- vnímaťto become aware of
Spanish percibir, apercibirse de
- percibirto become aware of
- apercibirse deto become aware of
Swahili kutambua
- kutambuato become aware of
Swedish begripa, uppfatta
- begripato become aware of
- uppfattato become aware of
- förnimmato become aware of
Thai รับรู้, เข้าใจ
- รับรู้ (ráp-rúu)to become aware of
- เข้าใจ (kâo-jai)to become aware of
Turkish algılamak
- algılamakto become aware of
Ukrainian сприйма́ти, сприйня́ти
- сприйма́ти (spryjmáty)to become aware of
- сприйня́ти (spryjnjáty)to become aware of
Welsh canfod, dirnad
- canfodto become aware of
- dirnadto become aware of
- amgyffredto become aware of
- sylwito become aware of
- sylweddolito become aware of
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with perceive
Cite this entry
perceive. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/perceive
“perceive.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/perceive. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “perceive,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/perceive.
Source: perceive on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.