sensualism

American  

[sen-shoo-uh-liz-uhm] / ˈsɛn ʃu əˌlɪz əm /

noun

1. subjection to sensual appetites; sensuality.

2. Philosophy. sensationalism.

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sensualism British  

/ ˈsɛnsjʊəˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. the quality or state of being sensual

2. another word for sensationalism sensationalism

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Other Word Forms

• hypersensualism noun

Etymology

Origin of sensualism

First recorded in 1795–1805; sensual + -ism

Example Sentences

Hung, a French Vietnamese filmmaker whose eye for cinematic sensualism was on display in early works like “The Scent of Green Papaya” and “Cyclo,” here achieves something of a culinary contact high.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2023

Miserablism and sensualism pair elegantly in this collaboration between FKA twigs and the Weeknd.

From New York Times • Dec. 17, 2021

The question of spiritual discipline has long been present in his writing: self-denial versus sensualism, the path of Jesus versus that of Byron.

From The Guardian • Feb. 27, 2013

The fundamental trait of this legend, as in “Tannhaeuser” and in the flight of Odysseus from the embraces of sensualism, had already appeared in the Greek myth of Zeus and Semele.

From Life of Wagner Biographies of Musicians by Nohl, Louis

The Anglo-French school particularly represents empiricism and sensualism, that is to say, an almost exclusive importance attributed in all parts of human knowledge to experience in general, and especially to sensible experience.

From Lectures on the true, the beautiful and the good by Cousin, Victor