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sense.

Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/sɛns//sɛnts//sɪns/pin-pen-merger/sɪnts/pin-pen-merger
  1. Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.

    countable · uncountable
    a sense of security
  3. Sound practical or moral judgment.

    countable · uncountable
    It’s common sense not to put metal objects in a microwave oven.
  4. The meaning, reason, or value of something.

    countable · uncountable
    You don’t make any sense.
    That just don't make a licka sense to me.
  5. The meaning, reason, or value of something. A meaning of a term (word or expression), among its various meanings.

    countable · uncountable
    the various senses of the word “car” (e.g., motor car, elevator car, railcar)
  6. The meaning, reason, or value of something. A single conventional use of a word; one of the entries or definitions for a word in a dictionary.

    countable · uncountable
  7. A natural appreciation or ability.

    countable · uncountable
    A keen musical sense
  8. The way that a referent is presented.

    countable · uncountable
  9. One of two opposite directions in which a vector (especially of motion) may point. See also polarity.

    countable · uncountable
  10. One of two opposite directions of rotation, clockwise versus anti-clockwise.

    countable · uncountable
  11. referring to the strand of a nucleic acid that directly specifies the product.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sent-der. Proto-Italic *sentiō Latin sentiō Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Italic *-tus Latin -tus Latin sēnsusbor. Proto-Germanic *sinnaz Frankish *sinnbor. Vulgar Latin *sennus Old French sensbor. Middle English sense English sense From 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”).

verb/sɛns//sɛnts//sɪns/pin-pen-merger/sɪnts/pin-pen-merger
  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.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sent-der. Proto-Italic *sentiō Latin sentiō Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Italic *-tus Latin -tus Latin sēnsusbor. Proto-Germanic *sinnaz Frankish *sinnbor. Vulgar Latin *sennus Old French sensbor. Middle English sense English sense From 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”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.