feel

/ˈfiːl/

feel verb: to become aware of through the skin; to use the sense of touch on. Also the alternative form of fele.

Verb

feel (third-person singular simple present feels, present participle feeling, simple past and past participle felt)

(copulative, transitive) To become aware of through the skin; to use the sense of touch on.
- You can feel a heartbeat if you put your fingers on your breast.
- I felt cold and miserable all night.
(transitive) To find one's way (literally or figuratively) by touching or using cautious movements.
- I felt my way through the darkened room.
- I felt my way cautiously through the dangerous business maneuver.
(intransitive) To receive information by touch or by any neurons other than those responsible for sight, smell, taste, or hearing.
(intransitive) To search by sense of touch.
- He felt (about) for the light switch in the dark.
(transitive) To experience an emotion or other mental state about.
- I can feel the sadness in his poems.
- Teach me to feel another's VVoe; / To hide the Fault I ſee; / That Mercy I to others ſhovv, / That Mercy ſhow to me.1738, [Alexander Pope], “Stanza X”, in The Universal Prayer. […], London [actually Edinburgh]: […] [Thomas Ruddiman] for R[obert] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 6
(transitive) To think, believe, or have an impression concerning.
- I feel that we need to try harder.
- We felt it (to be) our duty to call the police.
(copulative, intransitive) To experience an emotion or other mental state.
- He obviously feels strongly about it.
- She felt even more upset when she heard the details.
(intransitive) To sympathize; to have the sensibilities moved or affected.
- I feel for you and your plight.
- [She] feels with the dignity of a Roman matron.1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC
(transitive) To be or become aware of.
(transitive) To experience the consequences of.
- Feel my wrath!
(copulative) To seem (through touch or otherwise).
- It looks like wood, but it feels more like plastic.
- It felt really strange to be back in my old kindergarten.
(US, slang, transitive) To understand.
- I don't want you back here, ya feel me?
- Shoot, errbody have the zipper jacket / And half of these thugs have the glove to match, ya feel me?2002, “Work It”, in Under Construction, performed by Missy Elliott

Noun

feel (plural feels)

(archaic) The sense of touch.
- It begins as a firm elastic swelling, which communicates to the feel the idea that a fluid is contained under a firm fascia […]1838, John Burns, The Principles of Surgery, volume 1, page 330
A perception experienced mainly or solely through the sense of touch.
- Bark has a rough feel.
- And then something in the sound or the feel of the waters made him look down, and he perceived that the ebb had begun and the tide was flowing out to sea.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
A vague mental impression.
- You should get a feel for the area before moving in.
- You can arrange camel trips into the desert but to really get a feel for this allow yourself a couple of extra days and be prepared for what at times can be an uncomfortable journey: Xuan Zang tells us that as he left Khotan he was ‘attacked by tornados which bring with them clouds of flying...2010, Paul Wilson, “Khotan (Hetian)”, in The Silk Roads: A Route & Planning Guide, 3rd edition (Travel), Trailblazer Publications, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 379
An act of fondling.
- She gave me a quick feel to show that she loves me.
A vague understanding.
- I'm getting a feel for what you mean.
An intuitive ability.
- She has a feel for music.
(US, slang) A feeling; an emotion.
- I know that feel.

Also used as

feel is also the alternative form of fele.

feel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

feel in Hindi

transitive: to experience an emotion or other mental state about: महसूस करना mahsūs karnā

feel in Tamil

transitive: to think or believe: தோன்று tōṉṟu

feel in Urdu

transitive: to experience an emotion or other mental state about: محسوس کرنا mahsūs karnā

feel in Bengali

transitive: to experience an emotion or other mental state about: বোধ করা bōdh kora

More languagesFewer languages

feel in Sinhala: දැනෙනවා dænenawā
feel in Tagalog: maramdaman
feel in Arabic: شَعَرَ šaʕara, حَسَّ ḥassa, تحسس, شَعَرَ بِ šaʕara bi-
feel in Malay: berasa
feel in Indonesian: merasa, berasa
feel in Persian: حس کردن hes kardan, احساس کردن ehsâs kardan
feel in Thai: สัมผัส sǎm-pàt, รู้สึก rúu-sʉ̀k, คลำ klam, เชื่อ chʉ̂ʉa
feel in Vietnamese: mò, cảm thấy
feel in Myanmar: စမ်းသပ် cam:sap, ခံစား hkamca:

Examples of feel in a sentence

I did feel a complete fool after stumbling on the same rock again.
I'm feeling really nervous about my finals.
This is supposed to be a party, but it feels more like a funeral!
British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins.2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
They promised me eternal happiness; And brought me garlands, Griffith, which I feel I am not worthy yet to wear.1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William...
The unshanked snaffle bit is good for bending and getting a horse used to the feel of a bit.2010, Nathan Bowers, 4-H Guide to Training Horses, page 111:

All 40 example sentences with feel

Synonyms of feel

Antonyms

misfeel

Forms of feel

Verb
third-person singular present	feels
present participle	feeling
past participle	felt
past	felt
second-person singular present (archaic)	feelest
second-person singular past (archaic)	feltst
second-person singular past (archaic)	feltest
third-person singular present (archaic)	feeleth
Noun
plural	feels

Past tense of feel: felt

Plural of feel: feels

Origin of feel

From Middle English felen, from Old English fēlan, from Proto-West Germanic *fōlijan. Cognate with Dutch voelen and German fühlen.

See fele.

Phrases with feel

Words that rhyme with feel

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about feel

What does feel mean?: Feel means to become aware of through the skin; to use the sense of touch on.
What is feel in Hindi?: Feel in Hindi is महसूस करना (mahsūs karnā). See Feel meaning in Hindi.
How do you use feel in a sentence?: I did feel a complete fool after stumbling on the same rock again.
What part of speech is feel?: Feel can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce feel?: Feel is pronounced /ˈfiːl/.
What is the past tense of feel?: The past tense of feel is felt.

Words near feel in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: feel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-feel.wav, en-us-feel.ogg.

Cite this entry: “feel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/feel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.