perceive

1. 1.

   to become aware of through the senses

   “I could perceive the ship coming over the horizon”

   Synonymscomprehend

   Narrowerfeelapperceivepick updivinehallucinatemisperceivecatchdreamhurtsmell
2. 2.

   become conscious of

   “She finally perceived the futility of her protest”

   Broaderunderstand

   Narrowersmell

Other forms of perceive

past tense

perceived·

present participle

perceiving·

third person

perceives·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about perceive

What does perceive mean?

perceive means "to become aware of through the senses". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in perceive?

perceive has 2 syllables: per-ceive. The stress falls on "ceive". In IPA it is /pɚˈsiv/.

What is another word for perceive?

Close synonyms include comprehend. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is perceive a common word?

perceive is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with perceive?

6 words rhyme with perceive. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.