sentient

sentient, sensitive, impressible, impressionable, responsive, susceptible can all mean readily affected by stimuli, usually external stimuli.

Sentient implies a capacity to be affected through the senses; it may describe inclusively the lowest thing in animal life that feels, or the infant aware only of rudimentary sensation, or the man with the most highly developed powers of sensation or perception. The term sentient creature or sentient being may apply to a creature or being within these classes or between them

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the flowers in remote forests that no eye has ever seen, the shells of delicate form and rare color hidden forever in the deep waters of the sea—these fulfil the ends of their existence, though they have delighted no sentient being— Binyon

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whatever fate may have in store for the most sentient . . . the most civilized, the most socially developed people of the modern world— Brownell

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or it may apply to something animate or inanimate to which similar powers are ascribed

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it seemed the sentient earth must feel the summer— Mary Austin

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Sensitive (see also LIABLE) applies usually to human beings who are quick or sharp in sensing anything. It may imply senses that respond to the most delicate of stimuli

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to enjoy her [style] the reader must have ... a sensitive ear; especially must he have a sense of "pitch" in writing— Cather

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or it may imply quick emotional reactions that are the outward signs of one's being easily moved or stirred

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of age indeed and of death they had a horror proportional to their acute and sensitive enjoyment of life— Dickinson

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or an acuteness of mind that is linked with acuteness of sense and of emotion

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France, the most intellectually sensitive of modern nations— Babbitt

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Sometimes sensitive is applied not only to a part of the body (as a section of skin or an organ) which is abnormally or excessively reactive to stimuli but to inanimate things (as a photographic film, a thermometer, or an explosive) which responds quickly to some specific influencing factor (as light, heat, or shock)

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the high vacuum tubes which constitute the sensitive brain of modern radio— Morrison

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Impressible implies occasionally and impressionable regularly a readiness to be influenced, not only by a stronger power, but by a power that succeeds in producing an impression. They do not imply, as sensitive usually does, a power to judge accurately and delicately; rather they suggest crudeness or immaturity or indifference to the quality of the thing that impresses

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the mind impressible and soft with ease imbibes and copies what she hears and sees— Cowper

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what he couldn't think of was David submitting, during his most impressionable years, to the worst superstitions of Capitalism— Mary Austin

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Responsive, which implies sensitiveness to stimuli in particular or in general, suggests in addition a readiness to respond or react in the way that is wanted. Since it usually occurs only in a good sense, it is likely to connote alertness, cooperativeness, and enthusiasm

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we shall presumably find them most responsive to the language, literature, and history of their own country— Inge

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she took up life, and became alert to the world again, responsive, like a ship in full sail, to every wind that blew— Rose Macaulay

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Susceptible (see also LIABLE) suggests a fitness in disposition or in temperament to be affected by certain stimuli. Though it comes close to impressionable or responsive it more often implies weakness than does either of them, the weakness sometimes being stated but more frequently implied or suggested (as by the person considered or the circumstances attending)

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in France it is . . . bad manners to be too susceptible— Brownell

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she is susceptible to flattery

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he is very young and very susceptible to the charms of women

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his temper was not very susceptible of . . . enthusiasm— G ibbon

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