1.  sentient(a = adj.all) animate - endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness; "the living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God's stage"
Antonym: insentient
Derived form noun sentience₁

2.  sentient(s = adj.all) - consciously perceiving; "sentient of the intolerable load"; "a boy so sentient of his surroundings"
Derived forms noun sentience₃, noun sentience₂, noun sentiency₁

   Having a faculty, or faculties, of sensation and perception. [1913 Webster]

   One who has the faculty of perception; a sentient being. [1913 Webster]

sentient, adj. having the power of perception by the senses.

Derivative:
sentience n. sentiency n. sentiently adv.

Etymology:
L sentire feel

N  feeling, suffering, endurance, tolerance, sufferance, supportance, experience, response, sympathy, impression, inspiration, affection, sensation, emotion, pathos, deep sense, warmth, glow, unction, gusto, vehemence, fervor, fervency, heartiness, cordiality, earnestness, eagerness, empressement, gush, ardor, zeal, passion, enthusiasm, verve, furore, fanaticism, excitation of feeling, fullness of the heart, passion, ecstasy, blush, suffusion, flush, hectic, tingling, thrill, turn, shock, agitation, quiver, heaving, flutter, flurry, fluster, twitter, tremor, throb, throbbing, pulsation, palpitation, panting, trepidation, perturbation, ruffle, hurry of spirits, pother, stew, ferment, state of excitement, feeling, sentient, sensuous, sensorial, sensory, emotive, emotional, of feeling, with feeling, warm, quick, lively, smart, strong, sharp, acute, cutting, piercing, incisive, keen, keen as a razor, trenchant, pungent, racy, piquant, poignant, caustic, impressive, deep, profound, indelible, deep felt, home felt, heartfelt, swelling, soul-stirring, deep-mouthed, heart-expanding, electric, thrilling, rapturous, ecstatic, earnest, wistful, eager, breathless, fervent, fervid, gushing, passionate, warm-hearted, hearty, cordial, sincere, zealous, enthusiastic, glowing, ardent, burning, red-hot, fiery, flaming, boiling over, pervading, penetrating, absorbing, rabid, raving, feverish, fanatical, hysterical, impetuous, impressed with, moved with, touched with, affected with, penetrated with, seized with, imbued with, devoured by, wrought up, struck all of a heap, rapt, in a quiver, enraptured, heart and soul, from the bottom of one's heart, ab imo pectore, at heart, con amore, heartily, devoutly, over head and ears, head over heels, the heart big, the heart full, the heart swelling, the heart beating, the heart pulsating, the heart throbbing, the heart thumping, the heart beating high, the heart melting, the heart overflowing, the heart bursting, the heart breaking, the heart goes out, a heart as big as all outdoors (sympathy).

N  physical sensibility, sensibility, sensitiveness, physical sensibility, feeling, impressibility, perceptivity, aesthetics, moral sensibility, sensation, impression, consciousness, external senses, sensible, sensitive, sensuous, aesthetic, perceptive, sentient, conscious, acute, sharp, keen, vivid, lively, impressive, thin-skinned, to the quick, the touch'd needle trembles to the pole.