cognition

From Middle English cognicion, from Latin cognitio (“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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɒɡˈnɪʃ.ən/
• (General American, lot–cloth split) IPA^(key): /kɔɡˈnɪʃ.ən/
• (General American, cot–caught merger, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /kɑɡˈnɪʃ.ən/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /kɒɡˈnɪʃ.ən/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /koɡˈnɪʃ.ən/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /kɒɡˈnəʃ.ən/, [kɔ̟ɡˈnəʃ.ən]
• Hyphenation: cog‧ni‧tion

cognition (countable and uncountable, plural cognitions)

1. The process of knowing, of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought and through the senses.

cognition

1. Children develop cognition rapidly in their early years.

   The study focused on animal cognition.

   human cognition

   social cognition

   cognition research

   Coordinate terms: thought, thinking (loosely synonymous); noesis

2. (countable) A result of a cognitive process.
3. (archaic) Knowledge; awareness.

• “cognition”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “cognition”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• incognito