How to Use sentient in a Sentence

sentient

adjective
  • These are tools, not sentient beings.
    — Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 21 Aug. 2025
  • One of SpaceX’s new goals is to build a sentient sun.
    — Chris Young, Interesting Engineering, 9 Feb. 2026
  • The man notices the bush is sentient, gets spooked, and yells about the bush running away.
    — Vulture, 8 May 2023
  • The zany horror film is as self-aware as the sentient android at its center.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 7 Jan. 2023
  • Software may not be sentient, but it is made by sentient beings.
    — Sajal Singh, Forbes, 6 Sep. 2024
  • This isn’t because AI is sentient.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 18 Jan. 2026
  • Animals are sentient beings that must be cared for.
    — Joseph Buczek, CBS News, 22 Dec. 2025
  • Discover that the budgeting app has been sentient this whole time and loves you back.
    — Kathryn Kvas, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2021
  • Those other entities don’t appear to be sentient or to feel pain.
    — Tasha Robinson, Vulture, 29 May 2026
  • Perhaps people are part of that network, and all sentient beings.
    — Peter Keough, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Jan. 2022
  • But what happens when great power comes from a sentient alien symbiote with a murderous hive mind?
    — Katcy Stephan, Variety, 16 Oct. 2023
  • Adar believes that the orcs are not just sentient beings, who are capable of more than simply evil.
    — Christian Holub, EW.com, 4 Oct. 2024
  • In it, cities have become sentient beings that have to fight a common enemy.
    — Marisa Lascala, Good Housekeeping, 16 Apr. 2022
  • Maeve made what appears to be her first sentient decision, opting to stay in the park to find her daughter.
    — Mehera Bonner, Harper's BAZAAR, 23 Apr. 2018
  • And then there was the recent news about AI at Google being sentient.
    — Arun Shastri, Forbes, 26 June 2022
  • Of course, in the real world, with walls and furniture and sacks of sentient meat walking around, that may not quite line up.
    — Wes Davis, The Verge, 15 May 2023
  • Hall likened this approach to the creation of the sentient carpet in Aladdin.
    — Carolyn Giardina, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Sep. 2022
  • That becomes the human core of the play, without which any play is worthless—the human, sentient core.
    — Ayad Akhtar, The Atlantic, 4 Dec. 2024
  • Most experts and laypeople would agree that today’s AI is not sentient.
    — Rob Toews, Forbes.com, 22 June 2026
  • Elephants are social, multi-emotive, sentient beings who are known to mourn the dead.
    — Sayan Banerjee, Quartz, 30 Jan. 2023
  • Even the low-stakes stuff has impact, as when Kirie’s hair starts growing into sentient curls that refuse to be brushed straight.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2024
  • One of the key questions here is whether insects are sentient and have the capacity to feel pain and suffer.
    — WIRED, 16 Mar. 2023
  • Here all kinds of things and creatures are seen to be sentient and capable of odd transmigrations.
    — Olga Ingurazova, Smithsonian, 29 Sep. 2017
  • Think of it like a sentient car manual, able to tell you anything about your car, explain the why, and give it a lot of nuance.
    — Tim Stevens, Ars Technica, 17 Jan. 2024
  • The actress lamented both — then brought up from nowhere the consequential rage of the sentient planet.
    — Avi Selk, Washington Post, 10 Sep. 2017
  • An Antarctic blue whale, for example, is a sentient being with its own thoughts and emotions.
    — Madison Dapcevich, Discover Magazine, 25 June 2025
  • With every gust of wind, the prayers printed on them are said to spread throughout the world for the benefit of all sentient beings.
    — Klara Glowczewska, Town & Country, 8 June 2023
  • There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist.
    — Jennifer Hassan, Washington Post, 31 May 2022
  • The idea of having a seemingly sentient robot around still troubles Jones.
    — Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 9 July 2024
  • In Smart House, a single dad and two kids move into a sentient hyper-connected home.
    — Literary Hub, 2 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sentient.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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