Perceptibilities

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The qualities or attributes that allow for the detection or awareness of something
2. The capacity to notice and interpret sensory stimuli, leading to understanding
3. The extent to which a phenomenon can be recognized or perceived by an individual

Etymology: "Perceptibilities" is simply the plural of "perceptibility," so it names more than one instance or degree of the quality of being perceptible. The root is "perceptible," which is "perceive" with the suffix "-ible," meaning capable of being done or experienced, and "perceive" itself comes from the Latin "percipere," meaning to seize or take in, built from "per" (through, thoroughly) and "capere" (to take). The sense therefore carries the idea of something that can be grasped by the senses or the mind. The base word "perceptibility" follows the common pattern of turning an adjective ending in "-ible" into a noun ending in "-ibility," a formation widely used in English for qualities such as "possibility" and "visibility." Speakers rarely need the plural, which is why it is used mainly when comparing different phenomena, such as the perceptibilities of two signals or stimuli.