kinesthesia

Meaning

Noun

• Sensation or perception of motion.
• Proprioception or static position sense; the perception of the position and posture of the body; also, more broadly, including the motion of the body as well. See usage notes below.

Related

Similar words

• proprioception
• kinesthesis

Origin

• Coined based on Ancient Greek κινέω + αἴσθησις (after anesthesia, etc). Compare kinesthesis and Greek κιναισθησία.
• If this word were borrowed on fully traditional principles it would be cinesthesia (or cinaesthesia); compare cinema from the same root. But more often this Greek root is spelled and pronounced with a k, and in the case of kinesthesia this avoids inconvenient homophony with synaesthesia, the sensation of one type of perception as another (e.g. the perception of smells as colors). Nevertheless the words are still occasionally confused; e.g. .