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| sense [ senss ] |
noun (plural sens·es) |
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1. physical faculty: any of the faculties by which a person or animal obtains information about the physical world, e.g. sight or taste
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2. feeling derived from senses: a feeling derived from multiple or subtle sense impressions
  a sense of security
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3. ability to appreciate something: the faculty whereby somebody appreciates a particular quality
a sense of humor
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4. moral discernment: the ability to perceive and be motivated by moral or ethical principles
instill a sense of right and wrong in the children
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5. intelligence: the ability to make intelligent decisions or sound judgments
He's got no sense at all.
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6. point: useful purpose or good reason
There's no sense in waiting any longer.
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7. reasoned opinion: an opinion arrived at through reflection or perception, often as a consensus
The sense of the meeting was clearly to go ahead.
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8. main idea: the essence or gist of something
What was the sense of her argument?
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9. meaning: a single meaning of a word or phrase that may have many
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10. logic meaning of term: the meaning as opposed to the reference of a word or sentence
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plural noun sens·es |
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rational mind: a sensible, rational state of mind
I came to my senses in time to cancel the purchase.
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transitive verb (past and past participle sensed, present participle sens·ing, 3rd person present singular sens·es) |
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| Definition: |
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1. perceive somebody or something: to perceive somebody or something with a sense or the senses
I sensed a movement behind me.
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2. infer something: to understand something intuitively
He must have sensed that I was disappointed.
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3. detect and identify change: to detect and identify a change in something
The device senses when the door is opened and sounds the alarm.
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| [14th century. Via French< Latin sensus "perception" < sens-, past participle of sentire "feel"] |
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in a sense
1. considered from a point of view that may not be the most obvious or the most popular
2. used when saying that something could be described in a particular way, but that the description is not complete or accurate
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make sense to be understandable and consistent with reason
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make sense of something to understand something well enough to be able to act on it or evaluate it
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| Word History |
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The Latin word sentire "to feel," from which sense is derived, is also the source of English assent, consensus, consent, dissent, resent, sensible, sensual, sentence, and sentiment.
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