/sɛns/, /sɛnts/, /sɪns/
OriginFrom Middle English sense, from Old French sens, sen, san (“sense, perception, direction”); partly from Latin sēnsus (“sensation, feeling, meaning”), from sentiō (“feel, perceive”); partly of Germanic origin (whence also Occitan sen, Italian senno), from Vulgar Latin *sennus (“sense, reason, way”), from Frankish *sinn ("reason, judgement, mental faculty, way, direction"; whence also Dutch zin, German Sinn, Swedish sinne, Norwegian sinn). Both Latin and Germanic from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”).
- countable, uncountableAny of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.
“Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep.”
“What surmounts the reach / Of human sense I shall delineate.”
- countable, uncountablePerception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.
“a sense of security”
“this Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover” — The New Arcadia
“high disdain from sense of injured merit”
- countable, uncountableSound practical or moral judgment.
“It’s common sense not to put metal objects in a microwave oven.”
“some People so Harden'd in Wickedness, as to have No Sense at all of the most Friendly Offices, or the Highest Benefits.”
- countable, uncountableThe meaning, reason, or value of something.
“You don’t make any sense.”
“I think ’twas in another sense.”
- countable, uncountableA meaning of a term (word or expression), among its various meanings.
“the various senses of the word “car” (e.g., motor car, elevator car, railcar)”
- countable, uncountableA single conventional use of a word; one of the entries or definitions for a word in a dictionary.
- countable, uncountableA natural appreciation or ability.
- countable, uncountableThe way that a referent is presented.
- countable, uncountableOne of two opposite directions in which a vector (especially of motion) may point. See also polarity.
- countable, uncountableOne of two opposite directions of rotation, clockwise versus anti-clockwise.
- countable, uncountablereferring to the strand of a nucleic acid that directly specifies the product.
- To use biological senses: to either see, hear, smell, taste, or feel.
- To instinctively be aware.
“She immediately sensed her disdain.”
- To comprehend.
Formssenses(plural) · sence(alternative) · senses(present, singular, third-person) · sensing(participle, present) · sensed(participle, past) · sensed(past)