sense

• sence (archaic)

From Middle English sense, borrowed from Old French sens, sen, san (“sense, reason, direction”); partly from Latin sensus (“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 Old Frankish *sinn (“reason, judgement, mental faculty, way, direction”), from Proto-Germanic *sinnaz (“mind, meaning”). Both Latin and Germanic from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”).

• (standard) enPR: sĕns, IPA^(key): /sɛn(t)s/
• (pen-pin merger) IPA^(key): /sɪn(t)s/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛns
• Homophones: cents, scents, since (some dialects)

sense (countable and uncountable, plural senses)

1. Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Milton

     What surmounts the reach / Of human sense I shall delineate.

2. Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.

   a sense of security

   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Philip Sidney

     this Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     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.

   • (Can we date this quote?) L'Estrange

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

4. The meaning, reason, or value of something.

   You don’t make any sense.

   the true sense of words or phrases

   • Bible, Neh. viii. 8

     So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

     I think 'twas in another sense.

5. A natural appreciation or ability.

   A keen musical sense

6. (pragmatics) The way that a referent is presented.
7. (semantics) A single conventional use of a word; one of the entries for a word in a dictionary.
8. (mathematics) One of two opposite directions in which a vector (especially of motion) may point. See also polarity.
9. (mathematics) One of two opposite directions of rotation, clockwise versus anti-clockwise.
10. (biochemistry) referring to the strand of a nucleic acid that directly specifies the product.

• See also Thesaurus:sense

• common-sense

• → Afrikaans: sense

sense (third-person singular simple present senses, present participle sensing, simple past and past participle sensed)

1. To use biological senses: to either smell, watch, taste, hear or feel.
2. To instinctively be aware.

   She immediately sensed her disdain.

3. To comprehend.

• Essen, NESes, SE SNe, enses, esnes, seens, senes, snees

Borrowed from English sense.

sense (uncountable)

1. sense, good sense

sense

1. plural of sens

• sens

Ultimately from Latin sine, possibly conflated with absentia, or more likely from sens, itself from Old Catalan sen (with an adverbial -s-), from Latin sine. Compare French sans, Occitan sens, Italian senza.

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /ˈsən.sə/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛn.sə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈsen.se/

sense

1. without

• amb

• “sense” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Borrowed from Japanese 先生 (sensei).

sense

1. teacher

sēnse

1. vocative masculine singular of sēnsus