What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Sapient vs Sentience - What's the difference?

sapient | sentience |

As nouns the difference between sapient and sentience

is that sapient is (chiefly|science fiction) an intelligent, self-aware being while sentience is the state or quality of being sentient; possession of consciousness or sensory awareness.

As an adjective sapient

is possessing wisdom and discernment; wise, learned.

sapient

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Possessing wisdom and discernment; wise, learned.
  • * 2010 , (Christopher Hitchens), Hitch-22 , Atlantic 2011, p. 217:
    • In Europe I had been told by sapient academics that there wasn't really any class system in the United States: well, you couldn't prove that by the conditions in California's agribusinesses, or indeed its urban factories.
  • (chiefly, science fiction) Possessing intelligence and self-awareness.
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year = 1962 , date = January , first = Henry Beam , last = Piper , authorlink = H. Beam Piper , title = Naudsonce , magazine = Analog Science Fact and Science Fiction , volume = 68 , issue = 5 , page = 9 , passage = It was inhabited by a sapient humanoid race, and some of them were civilized enough to put it in Class V, and Colonial Office doctrine on Class V planets was rigid. }}

    Synonyms

    * (possessing wisdom) wise, sagacious * (possessing self-awareness) intelligent, self-aware, sentient

    Related terms

    * sapiently * Homo sapiens

    References

    * *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (chiefly, science fiction) An intelligent, self-aware being.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year = 1960 , first = Philip José , last = Farmer , authorlink = Philip José Farmer , title = A Woman a Day , page = 30 , passage = It seemed to him a possibility that the Cold War Corps of March might have contacted hitherto unknown sapients on some just discovered interstellar planet. }}

    Synonyms

    * See

    References

    * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    sentience

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • The state or quality of being sentient; possession of consciousness or sensory awareness.
  • * 1903 , , The Jewel of Seven Stars , ch. 5:
    • [T]he shadows . . . presently began to seem, as on last night, to have a sentience of their own.
  • * 2007 Dec. 28, Alexandra Silver, " Did This Tiger Hold a Grudge?," Time :
    • The science of animal sentience is far from a firm one; there's no way of knowing exactly what any animal is feeling.

    Related terms

    * sentiency * sentient * pansentience