Sentience means "having sensory perception". In its widest sense, an automatic door is sentient. However, sentience is frequently used as a synonym for sapience; i.e., saying that something is sentient indicates that it is aware in an approximately human-like manner of what it is sensing.

The sentience or non-sentience of animal species is a matter of debate, especially among animal rights activists and philosophers. The issue of sentience also frequently arises in science fictional contexts.