perceptible
adjective
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See here: if something is perceptible, you can perceive it (“to notice or become aware of”) or capture it with your senses. Those who are linguistically perceptive may wonder if perceptible comes to us from Latin. It does indeed. Arriving in English by way of Late Latin perceptibilis, perceptible comes from a form of percipere (“to perceive”), which comes from Latin capere (“to take”) and the prefix per- (“thoroughly”). Perceptible shares the capere part of its ancestry with a number of other English words related to seizing or being seized, including capture, captor, captivate, and even catch. An even closer relation of perceptible is perceptive: while perceptible describes what can be perceived, perceptive describes the one who does the perceiving. Perceptive was formed in English from perception, which is also from percipere.
Synonyms
Examples of perceptible in a Sentence
Paul A. Thompson, Pitchfork, 15 Oct. 2024
But during ninety remarkably fast-talking minutes in New York—verbally, both candidates are speed demons—the Ohio senator J. D. Vance moved the narrative of the race in a small but perceptible way toward the Republican side.
—Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 2 Oct. 2024
Improvements were barely perceptible to begin with but my doctor’s strategies proved helpful in time: a very dull and scrupulous diet, herbs for liver support, daily sweating, and crucially, charcoal tablets that bind with mould.
—Melissa Kenny, refinery29.com, 30 Oct. 2024
Alma implored rescuers to save her father, mother and five siblings after their home was hit by an Israeli strike, her voice barely perceptible in the haunting video captured on that fateful day.
—NBC News, 9 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for perceptible 
Dictionary Entries Near perceptible
Cite this Entry
“Perceptible.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perceptible. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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perceptible
adjective
Medical Definition
perceptible
adjective
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