sense

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See also: Sense and sensé

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

Noun[edit]

sense (countable and uncountable, plural senses)

  1. Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.
  2. Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.
    a sense of security
  3. Sound practical or moral judgment.
    It's common sense not to put metal objects in a microwave oven.
  4. The meaning, reason, or value of something.
    You don’t make any sense.
    1. Any particular meaning of a word, among its various meanings.
      word sense disambiguation
      the various senses of the word "car" (e.g., motor car, elevator car, railcar)
  5. A natural appreciation or ability.
    A keen musical sense
  6. (pragmatics) The way that a referent is presented.
  7. (semantics) A single conventional use of a word; one of the entries for a word in a dictionary.
    The word "set" has various senses.
  8. (mathematics) One of two opposite directions in which a vector (especially of motion) may point. See also polarity.
  9. (mathematics) One of two opposite directions of rotation, clockwise versus anti-clockwise.
  10. (biochemistry) referring to the strand of a nucleic acid that directly specifies the product.

Synonyms[edit]

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • Afrikaans: sense

Translations[edit]

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

See also[edit]

Verb[edit]

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[edit]

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

Anagrams[edit]

Afrikaans[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from English sense.

Noun[edit]

sense (uncountable)

  1. sense, good sense

Etymology 2[edit]

Noun[edit]

sense

  1. plural of sens

Catalan[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

Preposition[edit]

sense

  1. without
    Antonym: amb

Derived terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Chuukese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Japanese 先生 (sensei).

Noun[edit]

sense

  1. teacher

Dutch[edit]

Noun[edit]

sense

  1. Only used in sense maken

Latin[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Participle[edit]

sēnse

  1. vocative masculine singular of sēnsus

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old French sens, from Latin sensus.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

sense (plural senses)

  1. meaning, signification; interpretation

Descendants[edit]

References[edit]

Occitan[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Preposition[edit]

sense

  1. without

References[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Verb[edit]

sense

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