sense definition | Dictionary.com

sense

[sens]

noun, verb, sensed, sens⋅ing.

–noun

1.	any of the faculties, as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, by which humans and animals perceive stimuli originating from outside or inside the body.

2.	these faculties collectively.

3.	their operation or function; sensation.

4.	a feeling or perception produced through the organs of touch, taste, etc., or resulting from a particular condition of some part of the body: to have a sense of cold.

5.	a faculty or function of the mind analogous to sensation: the moral sense.

6.	any special capacity for perception, estimation, appreciation, etc.: a sense of humor.

7.	Usually, senses. clear and sound mental faculties; sanity: Have you taken leave of your senses?

8.	a more or less vague perception or impression: a sense of security.

9.	a mental discernment, realization, or recognition; acuteness: a just sense of the worth of a thing.

10.	the recognition of something as incumbent or fitting: a sense of duty.

11.	sound practical intelligence: He has no sense.

12.	something that is sensible or reasonable: to talk sense.

13.	the meaning or gist of something: You missed the sense of his statement.

14.	the value or worth of something; merit: There's no sense in worrying about the past.

15.	the meaning of a word or phrase in a specific context, esp. as isolated in a dictionary or glossary; the semantic element in a word or group of words.

16.	an opinion or judgment formed or held, esp. by an assemblage or body of persons: the sense of a meeting.

17.	Genetics. a DNA sequence that is capable of coding for an amino acid (distinguished from nonsense ).

18.	Mathematics. one of two opposite directions in which a vector may point.

–verb (used with object)

19.	to perceive (something) by the senses; become aware of.

20.	to grasp the meaning of; understand.

21.	(of certain mechanical devices) to detect physical phenomena, as light, temperature, radioactivity, etc., mechanically, electrically, or photoelectrically.

22.	Computers. to read (punched holes, tape, data, etc.) mechanically, electrically, or photoelectrically.

—Idioms

23.	come to one's senses, to regain one's good judgment or realistic point of view; become reasonable.

24.	in a sense, according to one explanation or view; to a certain extent: In a sense it may have been the only possible solution.

25.	make sense, to be reasonable or comprehensible: His attitude doesn't make sense.

Origin:
1350–1400; (n.) ME < L sēnsus sensation, feeling, understanding, equiv. to sent(īre) to feel + -tus suffix of v. action, with tt > s; (v.) deriv. of the n.

Synonyms:
4. Sense, sensation refer to consciousness of stimulus or of a perception as pleasant or unpleasant. A sense is an awareness or recognition of something; the stimulus may be subjective and the entire process may be mental or intellectual: a sense of failure. A sensation is an impression derived from an objective (external) stimulus through any of the sense organs: a sensation of heat. It is also a general, indefinite physical or emotional feeling: a sensation of weariness. 5. awareness, apprehension. 7. rationality. 9. estimation, appreciation. 13. signification, import, denotation, connotation, interpretation. See meaning. 16. feeling, sentiment. 19. discern, appreciate, recognize.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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sense (sěns)

1. Any of the faculties by which stimuli from outside or inside the body are received and felt, as the faculties of hearing, sight, smell, touch, taste, and equilibrium.
2. A perception or feeling produced by a stimulus; sensation: a sense of fatigue and hunger.
3. An intuitive or acquired perception or ability to estimate: a sense of diplomatic timing.
4. A capacity to appreciate or understand: a keen sense of humor.
5. A vague feeling or presentiment: a sense of impending doom.
6. Recognition or perception either through the senses or through the intellect; consciousness: has no sense of shame.
7. Natural understanding or intelligence, especially in practical matters: The boy had sense and knew just what to do when he got lost.
8. The normal ability to think or reason soundly. Often used in the plural: Have you taken leave of your senses?
9. Something sound or reasonable: There's no sense in waiting three hours.
10. A meaning that is conveyed, as in speech or writing; signification: The sense of the novel is the inevitability of human tragedy.
11. One of the meanings of a word or phrase: The word set has many senses. See Synonyms at meaning.
12. Judgment; consensus: sounding out the sense of the electorate on capital punishment.
13. Intellectual interpretation, as of the significance of an event or the conclusions reached by a group: I came away from the meeting with the sense that we had resolved all outstanding issues.
senses The faculties of sensation as means of providing physical gratification and pleasure.
1. An intuitive or acquired perception or ability to estimate: a sense of diplomatic timing.
2. A capacity to appreciate or understand: a keen sense of humor.
3. A vague feeling or presentiment: a sense of impending doom.
4. Recognition or perception either through the senses or through the intellect; consciousness: has no sense of shame.
5. Natural understanding or intelligence, especially in practical matters: The boy had sense and knew just what to do when he got lost.
6. The normal ability to think or reason soundly. Often used in the plural: Have you taken leave of your senses?
7. Something sound or reasonable: There's no sense in waiting three hours.
8. A meaning that is conveyed, as in speech or writing; signification: The sense of the novel is the inevitability of human tragedy.
9. One of the meanings of a word or phrase: The word set has many senses. See Synonyms at meaning.
10. Judgment; consensus: sounding out the sense of the electorate on capital punishment.
11. Intellectual interpretation, as of the significance of an event or the conclusions reached by a group: I came away from the meeting with the sense that we had resolved all outstanding issues.
1. Natural understanding or intelligence, especially in practical matters: The boy had sense and knew just what to do when he got lost.
2. The normal ability to think or reason soundly. Often used in the plural: Have you taken leave of your senses?
3. Something sound or reasonable: There's no sense in waiting three hours.
4. A meaning that is conveyed, as in speech or writing; signification: The sense of the novel is the inevitability of human tragedy.
5. One of the meanings of a word or phrase: The word set has many senses. See Synonyms at meaning.
6. Judgment; consensus: sounding out the sense of the electorate on capital punishment.
7. Intellectual interpretation, as of the significance of an event or the conclusions reached by a group: I came away from the meeting with the sense that we had resolved all outstanding issues.
1. A meaning that is conveyed, as in speech or writing; signification: The sense of the novel is the inevitability of human tragedy.
2. One of the meanings of a word or phrase: The word set has many senses. See Synonyms at meaning.
3. Judgment; consensus: sounding out the sense of the electorate on capital punishment.
4. Intellectual interpretation, as of the significance of an event or the conclusions reached by a group: I came away from the meeting with the sense that we had resolved all outstanding issues.
1. Judgment; consensus: sounding out the sense of the electorate on capital punishment.
2. Intellectual interpretation, as of the significance of an event or the conclusions reached by a group: I came away from the meeting with the sense that we had resolved all outstanding issues.

tr.v. sensed, sens·ing, sens·es

To become aware of; perceive.
To grasp; understand.
To detect automatically: sense radioactivity.

adj. Genetics Of or relating to the portion of the strand of double-stranded DNA that serves as a template for and is transcribed into RNA.

[Middle English, meaning, from Old French sens, from Latin sēnsus, the faculty of perceiving, from past participle of sentīre, to feel; see sent- in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Sense

Sense\, n. [L. sensus, from sentire, sensum, to perceive, to feel, from the same root as E. send; cf. OHG. sin sense, mind, sinnan to go, to journey, G. sinnen to meditate, to think: cf. F. sens. For the change of meaning cf. See, v. t. See Send, and cf. Assent, Consent, Scent, v. t., Sentence, Sentient.]

1. (Physiol.) A faculty, possessed by animals, of perceiving external objects by means of impressions made upon certain organs (sensory or sense organs) of the body, or of perceiving changes in the condition of the body; as, the senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. See Muscular sense, under Muscular, and Temperature sense, under Temperature.

Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep. --Shak.

What surmounts the reach Of human sense I shall delineate. --Milton.

The traitor Sense recalls The soaring soul from rest. --Keble.

2. Perception by the sensory organs of the body; sensation; sensibility; feeling.

In a living creature, though never so great, the sense and the affects of any one part of the body instantly make a transcursion through the whole. --Bacon.

3. Perception through the intellect; apprehension; recognition; understanding; discernment; appreciation.

This Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover. --Sir P. Sidney.

High disdain from sense of injured merit. --Milton.

4. Sound perception and reasoning; correct judgment; good mental capacity; understanding; also, that which is sound, true, or reasonable; rational meaning. "He speaks sense." --Shak.

He raves; his words are loose As heaps of sand, and scattering wide from sense. --Dryden.

5. That which is felt or is held as a sentiment, view, or opinion; judgment; notion; opinion.

I speak my private but impartial sense With freedom. --Roscommon.

The municipal council of the city had ceased to speak the sense of the citizens. --Macaulay.

6. Meaning; import; signification; as, the true sense of words or phrases; the sense of a remark.

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense. --Neh. viii. 8.

I think 't was in another sense. --Shak.

7. Moral perception or appreciation.

Some are so hardened in wickedness as to have no sense of the most friendly offices. --L' Estrange.

8. (Geom.) One of two opposite directions in which a line, surface, or volume, may be supposed to be described by the motion of a point, line, or surface.

Common sense, according to Sir W. Hamilton: (a) "The complement of those cognitions or convictions which we receive from nature, which all men possess in common, and by which they test the truth of knowledge and the morality of actions." (b) "The faculty of first principles." These two are the philosophical significations. (c) "Such ordinary complement of intelligence, that,if a person be deficient therein, he is accounted mad or foolish." (d) When the substantive is emphasized: "Native practical intelligence, natural prudence, mother wit, tact in behavior, acuteness in the observation of character, in contrast to habits of acquired learning or of speculation."

Moral sense. See under Moral, (a) .

The inner, or internal, sense, capacity of the mind to be aware of its own states; consciousness; reflection. "This source of ideas every man has wholly in himself, and though it be not sense, as having nothing to do with external objects, yet it is very like it, and might properly enough be called internal sense." --Locke.

Sense capsule (Anat.), one of the cartilaginous or bony cavities which inclose, more or less completely, the organs of smell, sight, and hearing.

Sense organ (Physiol.), a specially irritable mechanism by which some one natural force or form of energy is enabled to excite sensory nerves; as the eye, ear, an end bulb or tactile corpuscle, etc.

Sense organule (Anat.), one of the modified epithelial cells in or near which the fibers of the sensory nerves terminate.

Syn: Understanding; reason.

Usage: Sense, Understanding, Reason. Some philosophers have given a technical signification to these terms, which may here be stated. Sense is the mind's acting in the direct cognition either of material objects or of its own mental states. In the first case it is called the outer, in the second the inner, sense. Understanding is the logical faculty, i. e., the power of apprehending under general conceptions, or the power of classifying, arranging, and making deductions. Reason is the power of apprehending those first or fundamental truths or principles which are the conditions of all real and scientific knowledge, and which control the mind in all its processes of investigation and deduction. These distinctions are given, not as established, but simply because they often occur in writers of the present day.

Sense

Sense\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sensed; p. pr. & vb. n. Sensing.] To perceive by the senses; to recognize. [Obs. or Colloq.]

Is he sure that objects are not otherwise sensed by others than they are by him? --Glanvill.

Language Translation for : sense

Spanish: sentido,

German: der Sinn,

Japanese: 感覚

More Translations »

sense (n.)

c.1400, "faculty of perception," also "meaning or interpretation" (esp. of Holy Scripture), from O.Fr. sens, from L. sensus "perception, feeling, undertaking, meaning," from sentire "perceive, feel, know," prob. a fig. use of a lit. meaning "to find one's way," from PIE base *sent- "to go" (cf. O.H.G. sinnan "to go, travel, strive after, have in mind, perceive," Ger. Sinn "sense, mind," O.E. sið "way, journey," O.Ir. set, Welsh hynt "way"). Application to any one of the external or outward senses (touch, sight, hearing, etc.) first recorded 1526.

"Hornkostel cites a Negro tribe that has a separate word for seeing, but employs a common term for hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching." [A.G. Engstrom, "Philological Quarterly," XXV, 1946]

The verb meaning "to perceive by the senses" is recorded from 1598. Senses "mental faculties, sanity" is attested from 1568.

Main Entry: ¹sense
Pronunciation: 'sen(t)s
Function: noun
1 a : the faculty of perceiving by means of sense organs b : aspecialized animal function or mechanism (as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch) basically involving a stimulus and a sense organ c : the sensory mechanisms constituting a unitdistinct from other functions (as movement or thought)
2 : a particular sensation or kind or quality of sensation sense of balance>

Main Entry: ²sense
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Forms: sensed; sens·ing
: to perceive by the senses

sense (sěns)
n.

Any of the faculties by which stimuli from outside or inside the body are received and felt, as the faculties of hearing, sight, smell, touch, taste, and equilibrium.
A perception or feeling that is produced by a stimulus; sensation, as of hunger.

v. sensed, sens·ing, sens·es
To become aware of; perceive.

sense human language
A meaning of a word.
(2007-05-03)

sense

see come to one's senses; horse sense; in a sense; lull into (a false sense of security); make sense; sixth sense; take leave of (one's senses); talk sense.

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