What is an emotion?
An emotion is a mental and physiological state that arises when you experience something that is emotionally significant, such as pleasure, pain, anger, fear, or sadness. Emotions are often accompanied by feeling states, such as happiness, sadness, envy, love, hatred, etc., and behavioral responses, such as smiling or crying.
Emotions are important for motivating adaptive behaviors. For example, the unpleasant emotion of fear can motivate you to take action to avoid danger. The pleasant emotions of love and joy may motivate you to seek out social interactions and procreate.
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
emotion (noun)1.
a) obsolete - disturbance
b) - excitement
2.
a) the affective aspect of consciousness - feeling
b) a state of feeling
c) a conscious mental reaction (as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body feeling
Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus
emotion (noun)1.
a subjective response to a person, thing, or situation
SYNONYMS:
chord, emotion, passion, sentimentRELATED WORDS:
impression, perception, sensation, sense; angle, attitude, outlook, perspective, standpoint, viewpoint; belief, conviction, judgment ( judgement), mind, notion, opinion, persuasion, verdict, view; receptiveness, receptivity, responsiveness, sensibility, sensitiveness, sensitivityNEAR ANTONYMS:
insensitiveness, insensitivity, unfeelingness2.
depth of feeling
SYNONYMS:
ardency, emotion, enthusiasm, fervency, fervidness, fervor, fire, heat, intenseness, intensity, passion, passionateness, vehemence, violence, warmth, white heatRELATED WORDS:
cathexis; emotionalism, emotionality, histrionics, mawkishness, melodrama, sappiness, sentimentality; eagerness, earnestness, excitement, gusto, keenness, zest; fanaticism, fever, hot-bloodedness, infatuation, mania, obsession, zeal; compassion, responsiveness, sentiment, sympathy, tenderness; torridity, torridnessNEAR ANTONYMS:
aloofness, calmness, collectedness, composure, detachedness, dryness, phlegm, reserve, reservedness, reticence, taciturnity; apathy, indifference, stoicism, stoniness, unconcern; stiffness, woodenness; chilliness, coldness, coolness, frigidity, frigidness