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.

   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