emotion
- 01 B1 Intermediate
a strong feeling such as love, fear, or happiness.
a conscious mental reaction subjectively experienced as strong feeling, typically accompanied by physiological and behavioural changes.
Simple“It can be difficult to control your emotions when you are very tired.”
In context“The actor's ability to convey complex, conflicting emotions without speaking a single word was praised by every critic in attendance.”
UsageOften used as an uncountable noun when referring to the general capacity to feel.
PitfallHe showed many emotions during the movie. He showed a lot of emotion during the movie.While 'emotion' is countable when referring to specific types (love, anger), use it as an uncountable noun when talking about the general display of feelings.
Antonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
the way animals react to things in a way that looks like human feelings.
a physiological and behavioural response in non-human organisms that parallels human affective states.
Simple“Scientists study whether dogs feel the same emotions as humans.”
In context“Ethologists debate whether the physiological markers observed in primates constitute true emotion or merely instinctual survival responses.”
UsageCommon in biology and ethology contexts.
Usage emotion regulation · emotion including sadness · negative emotion
Borrowed from Middle French emotion (modern French émotion), from émouvoir (“excite”), based on Latin ēmōtus, past participle of ēmoveō (“to move out, move away, remove, stir up, irritate”), from ē- (“out”) (variant of ex-), and moveō (“move”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.