Prehension
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The act of grasping or gripping, especially with the hands. countable, uncountable
- 2 the act of gripping something firmly with the hands (or the tentacles) wordnet
- 3 According to Alfred North Whitehead, a type of universally acting perception that is not limited to living, self-conscious beings, and which involves an interconnectedness of the observer and the observed. countable, uncountable
"The addiction to punning was related to a reverence for the "Word." In a pun or a hieroglyphic figure, several lines come together in what Whitehead would call "a prehension"; in the comprehension of an event, that sympathetic resonance between the observor and the "thing" observed, there is a correspondence between the cosmic word of the gods (the Logos of St. John) and the inner words of the human mind, for each shares existence because it is a manifestation of divine laws and harmony."
Example
More examples"The addiction to punning was related to a reverence for the "Word." In a pun or a hieroglyphic figure, several lines come together in what Whitehead would call "a prehension"; in the comprehension of an event, that sympathetic resonance between the observor and the "thing" observed, there is a correspondence between the cosmic word of the gods (the Logos of St. John) and the inner words of the human mind, for each shares existence because it is a manifestation of divine laws and harmony."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin prehensio, prehensionis. Doublet of prison.
More for "prehension"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.