percept

Noun

percept (plural percepts)

1. (archaic) Something perceived; the object of perception.
   • I shall, therefore, make no scruple in using the expression concept for the object of conception, and conception I shall exclusively employ to designate the act of conceiving. Whether it might not, in like manner, be proper to introduce the term percept for the object of perception, I shall not at...[a. 1857, William Hamilton, “Lecture III. Introduction. […]”, in H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, editors, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William...
   • It may even be that the percepts detected by one sense organ are experienced as having the modality standardly associated with another.1988, Benny Shanon, “Remarks on the Modularity of Mind”, in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, volume 39, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Published for the British Society for the Philosophy of...
2. A perceived object as it exists in the mind of someone perceiving it; the mental impression that is the result of perceiving something.
   • I see an inkstand on the table: that is a percept. Moving my head, I get a different percept of the inkstand.1901, Charles Sanders Peirce, Grammar of Science
   • So far as in that world it is a stable feature, holds ink, marks paper and obeys the guidance of a hand, it is a physical pen. [...] So far as it is instable, on the contrary, coming and going with the movements of my eyes, altering with what I call my fancy, continuous with subsequent experiences...1905, William James, “How Two Minds Can Know One Thing”, in Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods

Verb

UK/pəˈsɛpt/US/pərˈsɛpt/

percept (third-person singular simple present percepts, present participle percepting, simple past and past participle percepted)

1. (obsolete, rare, transitive) Synonym of perceive.
   • And is not the highest speculation of it percepted and perfected by manuall instruments, and those fallacious too, as themselves complain?1652, John Gaule, Πῦς-μαντία. The Mag-Astro-Mancer, or the Magicall-Astrologicall-Diviner posed and puzzled

   Synonyms:

   perceive

2. (transitive) To make perceptible or distinct, to reveal.
   • The lighter and darker shading of surfaces can be understood as a means for discrimination in percepting each viewpoint, and at the same time as spatial articulation — back, forward, oblique — of the pictorial space of the picture-plane.1947, László Moholy-Nagy, translated by Daphne M. Hoffman, “The material (surface treatment, painting)”, in The New Vision and Abstract of an Artist (The Documents of Modern Art), New York, N.Y....
   • There was a nun of modesty, who with service was heavy / And big with sweet acts all her sweet life long; / Enough wisdom she had for twenty ordinary women / Who percepted love as a breath, and as a song.1950, Richard Eberhart, “A Legend of Viable Women”, in John Ciardi, editor, Mid-Century American Poets, New York, N.Y.: Twayne Publishers, published January 1952 (2nd printing), →OCLC, canto II, page...