Standard Lemma guide

sensualism

noun · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

Addiction to or obsession with sensual pleasures or affairs.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The doctrine that gratification of the senses is the highest good.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: ethics, human-sciences, philosophy, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

The doctrine that all knowledge not only originates in sensation, but are transformed sensations, copies or relics of sensations; sensationalism.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: epistemology, human-sciences, philosophy, sciences

Examples

  • 1858, The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, No. 1, Gottfried Wilhem von Leibnitz, He [Locke] repudiated any supposed dowry of original truths or innate or connate ideas, and endeavored to show how, by acting on the report of the senses and personal experience, the understanding arrives at all the ideas of which it is conscious. The mode of procedure in this case is empiricism; the result with Locke was sensualism,--more fully developed by Condillac, [18] in the next century.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

A sensual style or aesthetic.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: architecture, art, arts

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

(philosophy) the ethical doctrine that feeling is the only criterion for what is good

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: sensationalism

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: philosophical doctrine, philosophical theory

6

noun

Meaning 6

desire for sensual pleasures

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: sensuality, sensualness

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: sexual desire, eros, concupiscence, physical attraction

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English sensual Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós)der. English -ism English sensualism From sensual + -ism.

Across languages

Translations

14 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Polish: sensualizm — obsession with sensual pleasures
  • Czech: senzualismus — doctrine: gratification is highest good
  • Finnish: sensualismi — doctrine: gratification is highest good
  • Polish: sensualizm — doctrine: gratification is highest good
  • Belarusian: сэнсуалізм (sensualizm) — doctrine: everything reduces to transformed sensation
  • Finnish: sensualismi — doctrine: everything reduces to transformed sensation
  • French: sensualisme — doctrine: everything reduces to transformed sensation
  • Greek: αισθησιαρχία (aisthisiarchía) — doctrine: everything reduces to transformed sensation
  • Greek: αισθησιοκρατία (aisthisiokratía) — doctrine: everything reduces to transformed sensation
  • Greek: σενσουαλισμός (sensoualismós) — doctrine: everything reduces to transformed sensation
  • Italian: sensualismo — doctrine: everything reduces to transformed sensation
  • Polish: sensualizm — doctrine: everything reduces to transformed sensation
  • Russian: сенсуализм (sensualizm) — doctrine: everything reduces to transformed sensation
  • Spanish: sensualismo — doctrine: everything reduces to transformed sensation