Sentient means able to feel and to be aware. A sentient creature, sentient life, sentient beings.
It means capable of feeling rather than capable of thinking, which is the distinction that matters in law about animals. Whether something is sentient decides how it may be treated in several countries.
1adjectivesentientAble to feel and to be aware.
“The law now treats octopuses as sentient creatures.”
sentient is a quality.
Latin sentiens is the present participle of sentire, to feel.
Proto-Indo-European
*sent-
Latin
sentiēns — feeling, perceiving
English, today
sentient
From Latin sentiēns (“feeling, perceiving”), present active participle of sentiō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA