sense
/sɛns/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
pin pen merger/sɪns/
sense noun: any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.
Noun
sense (countable and uncountable, plural senses)
- Any 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.c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- What surmounts the reach / Of human sense I shall delineate.1667, John Milton, “Book V”, 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...
- Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.
- a sense of security
- this Basilius, having the quick sense of a lovera. 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...
- Sound 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.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
- The meaning, reason, or value of something.
- You don’t make any sense.
- That just don't make a licka sense to me.
- A 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)
- In this sense it was possible to speak of 'scientific' of 'Marxist' ideology, which Marx and Engels, given their use of the term, could never have done.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in...
- A single conventional use of a word; one of the entries or definitions for a word in a dictionary.
- A natural appreciation or ability.
- A keen musical sense
- The way that a referent is presented.
- One of two opposite directions in which a vector (especially of motion) may point. See also polarity.
- One of two opposite directions of rotation, clockwise versus anti-clockwise.
- referring to the strand of a nucleic acid that directly specifies the product.
Verb
sense (third-person singular simple present senses, present participle sensing, simple past and past participle sensed)
- To use biological senses: to either see, hear, smell, taste, or feel.
- To instinctively be aware.
- She immediately sensed her disdain.
- To comprehend.
sense meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
sense in Hindi
- sense, consciousness
- संज्ञा saṅgyā
- sense
- अर्थ arth, धी dhī, मज़मून mazmūn
sense in Tamil
- புலன், அறிவு, உணர்வு
sense in Urdu
- sense
- ارتھ arth, مضمون mazmūn
sense in Bengali
- sense; consciousness; judgement; understanding; discretion; good sense; sensation
- হুঁশ hũś
- sense, perception
- প্রত্যক্ষ prottokkho
- sense
- জ্ঞান gễn
More languagesFewer languages
- sense in Telugu
- స్పృహ spr̥ha
- sense in Malayalam
- വെളിവ് veḷivŭ
- sense in Kannada
- ಪ್ರಜ್ಞೆ, ಬುದ್ಧಿ, ಅರಿವು, ವಿವೇಕ
- sense in Gujarati
- સૂધ sūdh
- sense in Odia
- ପ୍ରକାଶ prakāśa
- sense in Sanskrit
- अर्थ ártha
- sense in Assamese
- তত্ত্ব tottto
- sense in Nepali
- अर्थ artha
- sense in Pashto
- مفهوم mafhúm
- sense in Tagalog
- pandama, dandam, damdam
- sense in Arabic
- مَعْنًى maʕnan, حَاسَّة ḥāssa, إِحْسَاس ʔiḥsās, شُعُور šuʕūr
- sense in Malay
- makna, maksud, erti, indera
- sense in Indonesian
- indra, budi, rasa, makna
- sense in Persian
- چم čem, حس hess
- sense in Vietnamese
- nghĩa, ý nghĩa
- sense in Myanmar
- အာရုံ arum
Examples of sense in a sentence
- Sight, hearing, and touch have been well explored, but the sense of smell has remained elusive, due in large measure to a lack of basic information.1987 October, Avery N. Gilbert and Charles J. Wysocki, “Results of the Smell Survey”, in National Geographic, volume 172, number 4, page...
- high disdain from sense of injured merit1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert...
Synonyms of sense
Forms of sense
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | senses |
| alternative form | sence |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | senses |
| present participle | sensing |
| past participle | sensed |
| past | sensed |
Origin of 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”).
Words formed from sense
- abound in one's own sense
- aftersense
- air sense
- ambisense
- antisense
- civic sense
- come to one's senses
- common sense
- countersense
- court sense
- cowsense
- dress sense
- enough sense to pound sand into a rathole
- game sense
- good sense
- horse sense
- in a sense
- in every sense of the word
- in the Biblical sense
- knock some sense into
- know someone in the Biblical sense
- lack-sense
- make it make sense
- make sense
- moral sense
- more dollars than sense
- more money than sense
- multisense
- my spider sense is tingling
- negative sense
- nonsense
- non-sense
- no sense no feeling
- positive sense
- present sense impression
- sense amplifier
- sense body
- sense capsule
- sense datum
- senseful
- senseless
- sensely
- sensemaking
- sense of craft
- sense of direction
- sense of place
- sense of time
- sense organ
- sense strand
- sensigenous
- sensism
- sensist
- sensive
- sensory
- Sensurround
- snail-sense feminism
- Spider sense
- Spider-sense
- spidey sense
- Spidey-sense
Phrases with sense
- saw sense
- see sense
- made sense
- seen sense
- sees sense
- sense data
- talk sense
- time sense
- makes sense
- sixth sense
- talks sense
- making sense
26 more phrasesFewer phrases
- seeing sense
- sense bodies
- sense organs
- talked sense
- fashion sense
- sense strands
- talking sense
- sense capsules
- sense of humor
- sense of humour
- sense amplifiers
- transferred sense
- knocks some sense into
- Common Sense Revolution
- knocked some sense into
- knocking some sense into
- present sense impressions
- abounds in one's own sense
- abounded in one's own sense
- abounding in one's own sense
- knew someone in the biblical sense
- known someone in the biblical sense
- knows someone in the biblical sense
- knowing someone in the biblical sense
- where there's no sense there's no feeling
- common sense is neither common nor sensical
Words that rhyme with sense
Questions about sense
- What does sense mean?
- Sense means any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.
- What is sense in Hindi?
- Sense in Hindi is संज्ञा (saṅgyā), अर्थ (arth), धी (dhī). See Sense meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use sense in a sentence?
- Sight, hearing, and touch have been well explored, but the sense of smell has remained elusive, due in large measure to a lack of basic information.
- What part of speech is sense?
- Sense can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sense?
- Sense is pronounced /sɛns/.
- What is the plural of sense?
- The plural of sense is senses.
Words near sense in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sense (page history and authors); अर्थ (Hindi) (page history and authors); sense (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ارتھ (Urdu) (page history and authors); জ্ঞান (Bengali) (page history and authors); വെളിവ് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); sense (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); સૂધ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ପ୍ରକାଶ (Odia) (page history and authors); अर्थ (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); তত্ত্ব (Assamese) (page history and authors); अर्थ (Nepali) (page history and authors); مفهوم (Pashto) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-sense.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-sense.wav.
Cite this entry: “sense.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sense. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.