sentient being
Aware living thing
A sentient being is a creature capable of feeling and perceiving—experiencing sensations like pleasure, pain, or awareness of its surroundings.
The phrase appears most often in philosophical, ethical, and Buddhist contexts, where the capacity for suffering determines moral consideration: All sentient beings deserve compassion.
It distinguishes conscious creatures from plants, machines, or abstractions.
- consciousMentally present and alert
- conscious mindWakeful, deliberate mental activity
- awarenessState of perceiving reality
- self awarenessRecognition of one's own character
- soulInnermost animating essence
inner life · creature · living thing · living · mind · feeling · animal · human · spirit · alive · perception · lived experience · experience · cognition · self-aware · mortal · organism · intelligence
sentient, being, sentience, insentient, sentence, sentiment, sentimental, sentimentality, sentimentally