perceive

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• transitive verb To become aware of (something) directly through any of the senses, especially sight or hearing.
• transitive verb To cause or allow the mind to become aware of (a stimulus).
• transitive verb To achieve understanding of; apprehend: synonym: see.
• transitive verb To regard or consider; deem.

from The Century Dictionary.

• In general, to become aware of; gain a knowledge of (some object or fact).
• Specifically, to come to know by direct experience; in psychology, to come to know by virtue of a real action of the object upon the mind (commonly upon the senses), though the knowledge may be inferential; know through external or internal intuition.
• Synonyms Observe, Notice, etc. See see.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To obtain knowledge of through the senses; to receive impressions from by means of the bodily organs; to take cognizance of the existence, character, or identity of, by means of the senses; to see, hear, or feel
• transitive verb To take intellectual cognizance of; to apprehend by the mind; to be convinced of by direct intuition; to note; to remark; to discern; to see; to understand.
• transitive verb rare To be affected of influenced by.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb To see, to be aware of, to understand.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb become conscious of
• verb to become aware of through the senses