SENSATION

noun Etymology: Medieval Latin ~-, sensatio, from Late Latin, understanding, idea, from Latin sensus Date: 1615 1. a mental process (as seeing, hearing, or smelling) resulting from the immediate external stimulation of a sense organ often as distinguished from a conscious awareness of the sensory process, awareness (as of heat or pain) due to stimulation of a sense organ, a state of consciousness due to internal bodily changes , an indefinite bodily feeling , something (as a physical stimulus, sense-datum, or afterimage) that causes or is the object of ~, 3. a state of excited interest or feeling , a cause of such excitement