Cognition
//kɒɡˈnɪʃ.ən// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The process of knowing, of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought and through the senses. countable, uncountable
"human cognition"
- 2 the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning wordnet
- 3 A result of a cognitive process. countable
- 4 Knowledge; awareness. archaic, countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"At Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute, a chimpanzee is performing a task that is impossible for a person to do, revealing how chimp cognition can mirror—and in some cases surpass—the capabilities of the human brain."
Etymology
From Middle English cognicion, cognicioun from Latin cognitiō (“knowledge, perception, a judicial examination, trial”), from cognitus, past participle of cognoscere (“to know”), from co- (“together”) + *gnoscere, older form of noscere (“to know”); see know, and compare cognize, cognizance, cognizor, cognosce, connoisseur.
Related phrases
More for "cognition"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.