When your dog yelps when a toddler pulls its tail, you know that your dog is a sensate creature. Something that is sensate has feelings or can be felt.
You can use this adjective for things that you can sense physically, or for people who have the ability to perceive such things. You could say that humans are sensate but robots aren't (yet). Or describe a loud rock concert as an overwhelming sensate experience. Sensate comes from the Late Latin word sensatus, "gifted with sense or perception." It gained popularity as an adjective in the 1930s, when sociologists began using it.