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visual sensation

visual sensation

1 4.3
A feeling you have when your eyes see something, like bright spots
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : sensación visual
  • It hardly needs to be underlined that this degree of engagement in conveying visual sensations will draw untold benefits from the reading of descriptive fiction.

Examples

  • But we are increasingly aware that painters are not necessarily privileged spectators of their own works; and when they turn to words, they may in fact be rather less able than other categories of writers to articulate their thoughts about the notoriously opaque world of visual sensation.

    Academic text (1990)
  • When we open our eyes, we have a visual sensation that creates an intuition of space, an appearance of things, and the way in which they are situated.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Well, that big screen 3D TV of mine is necessary, so I can feel like "I'm really there" and I'm not deprived of any visual sensation, stimulation, or pleasure.

    Blog text (16)
  • But this memory is produced gradually by the metaphorical dimensions of the auditory and visual sensations that Frederic's solitude allows him to perceive.

    Academic text (1990)
  • When we open our eyes, we have a visual sensation that creates an intuition of space and the way things are situated.

  • The quality of visual sensation involves perceiving colors, light, and depth when we look at an object.

  • Experiencing a visual sensation can be as simple as noticing the bright blue sky on a sunny day.

Synonyms

sight
vsvisual sensation
538 1.0

The ability to see or an impressive thing you see

is the sensory experience that comes from eye stimulation
sensation
vsvisual sensation
137 3.5

A feeling in your body from touch, pain, or heat

is the eye-specific experience produced only by eye stimulation rather than any organ
perception
vsvisual sensation
14 4.6

Noticing things using your senses such as sight or hearing

is the immediate eye-triggered experience rather than the broader process of awareness
visual image
vsvisual sensation
4 3.8

A picture in your mind of something you have seen

is the immediate sensory experience caused by eye stimulation
perceptual experience
vsvisual sensation
  • Specialized
1 7.2

An experience you get through your senses, like seeing or feeling something

is the immediate eye-caused experience rather than the whole process of awareness
percept
vsvisual sensation
  • Specialized
1 9.8

A mental image or impression you get from your senses

is the sensory experience itself rather than just the mental image after awareness
seeing
vsvisual sensation
1.0

The ability to use your eyes to notice things

is the immediate experience caused by stimulation of the eyes
visual perception
vsvisual sensation
4.1

The ability to see and understand what you look at

is the straightforward experience produced by direct eye stimulation
visual percept
vsvisual sensation
  • Specialized
7.5

A picture in your mind you form when you see something

is the raw experience produced directly by eye stimulation
sense experience
vsvisual sensation
5.6

A simple feeling you get from touch, sight, hearing, taste or smell

is the immediate experience from eye stimulation rather than general organ stimulation
sense impression
vsvisual sensation
6.5

A quick feeling from sight, sound, touch, taste or smell

is the specific experience caused by eye receptors rather than any receptor

How Intense

visual sensation
  • Specialized
1 4.3
faintness
1 5.5

Surface Forms

Morphology

visual + sensation

Both constituents — 'visual' (related to sight) and 'sensation' (a sensory experience) — combine in a straightforward, compositional way to mean a sensory experience of seeing. The phrase is literal and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the component words can readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Visual sensation puts together visual ('about seeing') and sensation ('a feeling'). It gives a simple picture: when light or images hit your eyes you get that 'feeling' of seeing, so the phrase means the experience of seeing something.