Afference

//ˈæfəɹəns// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The brain’s reception of signals from the body. countable, uncountable

    "Christina had lost this normal inflow, this afference, had lost her normal proprioceptive vocal tone and posture, and therefore had to use her ears, auditory feedback, instead."

Example

More examples

"Christina had lost this normal inflow, this afference, had lost her normal proprioceptive vocal tone and posture, and therefore had to use her ears, auditory feedback, instead."

Etymology

Adjective form of afferent, from French afférent (“which brings inward”), from Latin afferent-, from afferēns, present participle of afferre (“bring to”), from af- (variant of ad-) + ferre (“bear”). Doublet of afferentia.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.