sense

noun
/sɛns/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sent-der. Proto-Italic *sentjō 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”).

  1. derived from *sent-✻ — “to feel”
  2. derived from *sinn✻
  3. derived from *sennus✻ — “sense, reason, way”
  4. derived from sēnsus — “sensation, feeling, meaning”
  5. derived from sens, sen, san — “sense, perception, direction”
  6. inherited from sense

Definitions

  1. Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world

    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.
    • What surmounts the reach / Of human sense I shall delineate.
  2. Perception through the intellect

    Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.

    • a sense of security
    • this Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover
    • high disdain from sense of injured merit
  3. 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.
  4. ›+ 9 more definitions
    1. The meaning, reason, or value of something.

      • You don’t make any sense.
      • I think ’twas in another sense.
    2. A natural appreciation or ability.

      • A keen musical sense
    3. The way that a referent is presented.

    4. One of two opposite directions in which a vector (especially of motion) may point. See…

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

    5. One of two opposite directions of rotation, clockwise versus anti-clockwise.

    6. referring to the strand of a nucleic acid that directly specifies the product.

    7. To use biological senses

      To use biological senses: to either see, hear, smell, taste, or feel.

    8. To instinctively be aware.

      • She immediately sensed her disdain.
    9. To comprehend.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for sense. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA