Word.ws English Dictionary

precipient

precipient adjective: commanding; directing; willing.

Adjective

precipient (comparative more precipient, superlative most precipient)

  1. Commanding; directing; willing.
    • Identity, as applied to man, denotes strictly the same unchanged and unchangeable precipient unity, notwithstanding any diversity of modes or of relations as to time, place, or other objects, which it may have experienced.1810 February, “Metaphysical Essays; containing the Pinciples and fundamental Objects of that Science. By Richard Kirwan”, in The Monthly Repertory of English Literature, volume 9, page 328
    • Whilst the wholly external thing, or fact is, in the language of metaphysics, pure object, and the precipient or acting soul pure subject, the intervening links—that is, the modification of the organ of sense, or of conscious motion, that of the cerebral centres, and also (it is assumed) that of...1869, Aspects of Humanity, brokenly mirrored in the Ever-Swelling Currents of Human Speech, page 10
  2. Perceiving or perceived; pertaining to or capable of observation or sensation.
    • Total embolism of the left artery; organic disease of the heart; retention of a small island of precipient retina; treatment by deep massage with slight improvement .1911, Casey Albert Wood, A System of ophthalmic operations, page 1385
    • Against this, however, I have the precipient testimony of trained observers: Trooper Ranger , Officer Albrecht, Sgt. Prock, who observed these individuals .1987, National Transportation Safety Board Decisions, page 314

Noun

precipient (plural precipients)

  1. One who wills or has consciousness.
    • The mind itself, the self-conscious precipient, the only real existence in the constitution of man, is placed beyond the reach of human observation; an those who resolve the thinking principle into a convolution of organic fibres like the brain, might as well suppose the thinking power of the...1810 February, “Metaphysical Essays; containing the Principles and fundamental Objects of that Science. By Richard Kirwan”, in The Monthly Repertory of English Literature, volume 9, page 324
    • Nor can the elements of the phenomenal world derive any complexity from the interaction of the noumenal elements which they represent with the complex structure of the precipients.1880, Frederick W. Frankland, “On the Doctrine of Mind-Stuff”, in Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, page 214
  2. One who perceives, especially one who is particularly sensitive.
    • We parayed around his bed, and I occasionally addressed to him a few appropriate sentences; but the divine precipient within had withdrawn its notices from all sublunary things: God had graciously interposed a veil between him and this life, for his feelings were not excited (as far as we could...1830 August, “Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Lloyd”, in The Christian guardian, page 289
    • The difficulties which have often been felt, and which have occasioned interminable controversies, concerning the priority of the outward or the inward act, might be lessened if we were to meditate on the facts presented to us by all the operations of life; hhow in all there is a combination of two...1877, Julius Charles Hare, Edward Hayes Plumptre, The Mission of the Comforter, page 297

Examples of precipient in a sentence

  • But it is ineffective in respect of certain people who do not obey the precipient will.2008, Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, page 89:
  • However, it can be developed if you find a precipient brain, that is, one specially tuned in to inner induction.2006, Vera Velichko, The Best on the East, page 409:
  • One precipient has heard the shouts and screams of a riot and felt the rush of spirits as they flee to the north side of the plaza ,2005, Jeff Dwyer, Ghost Hunter's Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area, page 102:
  • Well, so I turned out to be an exceptional precipient.2006, Vera Velichko, The Best on the East, page 409:

Forms of precipient

Adjective
comparativemore precipient
superlativemost precipient
Noun
pluralprecipients

Origin of precipient

From Latin praecipiens. See precept.

Questions about precipient

What does precipient mean?
Precipient means commanding; directing; willing.
How do you use precipient in a sentence?
But it is ineffective in respect of certain people who do not obey the precipient will.
What part of speech is precipient?
Precipient can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near precipient in the dictionary

  1. precipice
  2. precipice bond
  3. precipice bonds
  4. precipiced
  5. precipices
  6. precipient
  7. precipients
  8. precipitabilities
  9. precipitability
  10. precipitable
  11. precipitable water

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: precipient (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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