sensibility

noun

sen·​si·​bil·​i·​ty ˌsen(t)-sə-ˈbi-lə-tē 

plural sensibilities

1

: ability to receive sensations : sensitiveness

tactile sensibility

2

: peculiar susceptibility to a pleasurable or painful impression (as from praise or a slight)

—often used in plural

3

: awareness of and responsiveness toward something (such as emotion in another)

4

: refined or excessive sensitiveness in emotion and taste with especial responsiveness to the pathetic

Did you know?

The meanings of sensibility run the gamut from mere sensation to excessive sentimentality. In between is a capacity for delicate appreciation, a sense often pluralized. In Jane Austen's books, sensibility is mostly an admirable quality she attributes to, or finds lacking in, her characters: "He had ... a sensibility to what was amiable and lovely" (of Mr. Elliot in Persuasion). In Sense and Sensibility, however, Austen starts out by ascribing to Marianne sensibleness, on the one hand, but an "excess of sensibility" on the other: "Her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation ... she was everything but prudent."

Synonyms

• feeling
• heartstrings
• passions

Examples of sensibility in a Sentence

The writer is remembered most for his sensibility.

She's a woman of poetic sensibility.

Recent Examples on the Web

While his perspective on Reubens may endure or fade, what will stand over time, Wolf said, is Reubens’ legacy as an artist and innovator who brought his offbeat sensibility to the widest possible audience, and who paid a price for doing so. —Dave Itzkoff, Los Angeles Times, 22 May 2025

The same holds when a human invention appears to defy general sensibilities. —Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 21 May 2025

Our ‘Marcel the Shell’ movie came out, and there’s so much of me and my own sensibility in that character, but that was made, of course, in teamwork with Dean Fleischer Camp. —Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 19 May 2025

That such a straightforwardly earnest candidate would emerge as a favorite of the downtown world may seem unlikely: This set has been characterized as everything from reactionary to right-wing, and above all, governed by a certain ironic sensibility. —Joseph Bernstein, New York Times, 17 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for sensibility

• affability
• audibility
• bistability
• capability
• changeability
• contractility
• credibility
• culpability
• disability
• disutility
• durability
• fallibility

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Kids Definition

sensibility

noun

sen·​si·​bil·​i·​ty ˌsen(t)-sə-ˈbil-ət-ē 

plural sensibilities

1

: ability to receive sensations : sensitiveness

2

: response to a pleasurable or painful impression (as praise or criticism)

3

: the emotion or feeling of which a person is capable

Medical Definition

sensibility

noun

sen·​si·​bil·​i·​ty ˌsen(t)-sə-ˈbil-ət-ē 

plural sensibilities

1

: ability to receive sensations

sensibility to pain

2

: awareness of and responsiveness toward something (as emotion in another)