arousal.

1. A heightened state of physiological or mental activation.

2. A state of sexual excitement.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• physiological arousal
• emotional arousal

On the page

The noise increased arousal without improving performance.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / human behavior. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: character, interpretation. Commonness: moderately common.