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.
Examples of perceptible in a Sentence
Footwear News, 24 Oct. 2025
The environment of transformation is inescapable, and small, perceptible shifts in our way of working happen almost immediately.
—Brené Brown, Fortune, 14 Oct. 2025
My sister looked up at me and ever so gently, with barely perceptible pressure, squeezed my hand.
—Gordon G. Chang, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Sep. 2025
That perceptible swing—characterized by personality, warmth, and settled approachability—coincided with Amy Astley’s appointment as our head of editorial content.
—Katherine McLaughlin, Architectural Digest, 9 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for perceptible
Cite this Entry
“Perceptible.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perceptible. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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perceptible
adjective
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perceptible
adjective
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