sense

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See also: Sense and sensé

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English sense, from Old French sens, sen, san (“sense, reason, 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”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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sense (countable and uncountable, plural senses)

English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia Wikipedia
English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia Wikipedia
  2. Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.
  4. Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.
    a sense of security
    • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:
      this Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      high disdain from sense of injured merit
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XLIII, page 66:
      The days have vanish’d, tone and tint,
      ⁠And yet perhaps the hoarding sense
      ⁠Gives out at times (he knows not whence)
      A little flash, a mystic hint; […]
    • 1990 December 16, Laura Briggs, quoting Robert Weinerman, “Gay Students Fight 'Little War' At Mass. School”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 22, page 15:
      Where a college administration does not come forward and say that gay people have a right to be here, there is a sense among students that it is acceptable to harass and intimidate lesbian and gay members of that community.
  6. Sound practical or moral judgment.
    It’s common sense not to put metal objects in a microwave oven.
  8. The meaning, reason, or value of something.
    You don’t make any sense.
    2. Any particular meaning of a word, among its various meanings.
      Hyponyms: subsense, subsubsense
      word sense disambiguation
      the various senses of the word “car” (e.g., motor car, elevator car, railcar)
    4. (semantics) A single conventional use of a word; one of the entries or definitions for a word in a dictionary.
  10. A natural appreciation or ability.
    A keen musical sense
  12. (pragmatics) The way that a referent is presented.
  14. (mathematics) One of two opposite directions in which a vector (especially of motion) may point. See also polarity.
  16. (mathematics) One of two opposite directions of rotation, clockwise versus anti-clockwise.
  18. (biochemistry) referring to the strand of a nucleic acid that directly specifies the product.

Synonyms

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Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Afrikaans: sense

Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

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Verb

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sense (third-person singular simple present senses, present participle sensing, simple past and past participle sensed)

  1. To use biological senses: to either see, hear, smell, taste, or feel.
  2. To instinctively be aware.
    She immediately sensed her disdain.
  3. To comprehend.

Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Anagrams

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Afrikaans

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from English sense.

Noun

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sense (uncountable)

  1. sense, good sense

Etymology 2

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Noun

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sense

  1. plural of sens

Catalan

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Ultimately from Latin sine, possibly conflated with absentia, or more likely from sens, itself from Old Catalan sen (with an adverbial -s-), from Latin sine. Compare French sans, Occitan sens, Italian senza.

Pronunciation

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Preposition

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sense

  1. without
    Antonym: amb

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Chuukese

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Japanese 先生 (sensei).

Noun

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sense

  1. teacher

Dutch

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Noun

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sense

  1. Only used in sense maken

Latin

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Pronunciation

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Participle

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sēnse

  1. vocative masculine singular of sēnsus

Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old French sens, from Latin sensus.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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sense (plural senses)

  1. meaning, signification; interpretation

Descendants

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References

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Occitan

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From a variant of Latin sine (“without”), influenced by absēns (“absent, remote”).

Pronunciation

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Preposition

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sense

  1. without

References

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Spanish

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Verb

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sense

  1. inflection of sensar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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