Sentience (noun)

The ability to perceive, feel, or be conscious, typically in a way that involves subjective experience.

Origin:

From middle french sentience, from latin sentientia, from sentiens, present participle of sentire ("to feel").

Examples:

1. The question of whether animals have sentience is still a topic of debate.
2. The definition of sentience was discussed by the philosophers.
3. The robot's sentience was demonstrated by its ability to make decisions.
4. The sentience of plants is still a topic of research in botany.
5. The concept of sentience is central to the debate on the ethics of artificial intelligence.