What does multisensory mean?
Multisensory is an adjective describing something that involves more than one sense, such as sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell. It is especially common in education, where multisensory learning uses several sensory channels to help people understand and remember information. In design and the arts, a multisensory experience combines visual, auditory, and tactile elements, and sometimes smell or taste, to create a richer or more memorable impression. The word can also describe communication systems that integrate images, sound, movement, and physical interaction. It is more specific than sensory, which refers broadly to the senses or to anything involving sensation. In technology, the related term multimodal is often preferred for systems that process or combine different kinds of information. Multisensory remains a useful term for emphasizing deliberate interaction between different forms of perception and expression.
adjectiveInvolving or engaging more than one of the five senses. Multisensory activities may combine sound, sight, touch, taste, or smell to convey information or create an experience.
- Involving or engaging more than one sense.
- Designed to convey information or create an experience through a combination of sensory channels.
"The museum created a multisensory garden that visitors could explore through scent, texture, and sound."
"The lesson used pictures, spoken explanations, and objects to create a multisensory introduction to the topic."
"The performance was multisensory, combining live music, projected images, and the scent of incense."
Multisensory learning turns the body into a second classroom, helping ideas stick through sound, movement, texture, and image.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does multisensory come from?
The word is a modern formation combining the Latin-derived prefix multi-, meaning “many,” with sensory, which comes through French from Latin sentire, “to perceive by the senses.” The Latin root sentire also underlies words such as sense, sensation, sensor, and sensible. Multisensory became especially common in educational and technical writing during the 20th century as researchers and practitioners described approaches that deliberately involve several sensory channels.
How multisensory is actually used
Common in education, design, technology, and discussions of communication and media. It is often used to describe experiences that deliberately combine visual, auditory, tactile, and other sensory elements.
Easily confused with multisensory
Sensory describes anything connected with the senses, whereas multisensory specifically involves more than one sense.