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: My sense of smell tells me that dinner is ready.
these faculties collectively.
their operation or function; sensation.
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.
a faculty or function of the mind analogous to sensation: the moral sense.
any special capacity for perception, estimation, appreciation, etc.: a sense of humor.
Usually senses . clear and sound mental faculties; sanity: Have you taken leave of your senses?
a more or less vague perception or impression: a sense of security.
a mental discernment, realization, or recognition; acuteness: a just sense of the worth of a thing.
the recognition of something as incumbent or fitting: a sense of duty.
sound practical intelligence: He has no sense.
something that is sensible or reasonable: Try to talk sense instead of shouting.
the meaning or gist of something: You missed the sense of his statement.
the value or worth of something; merit: There's no sense in worrying about the past.
the meaning of a word or phrase in a specific context, especially as isolated in a dictionary or glossary; the semantic element in a word or group of words.
an opinion or judgment formed or held, especially by an assemblage or body of persons: the sense of a meeting.
Genetics. a DNA sequence that is capable of coding for an amino acid (distinguished from nonsense).
Mathematics. one of two opposite directions in which a vector may point.
verb (used with object),sensed,sens·ing.
to perceive (something) by the senses; become aware of.
to grasp the meaning of; understand.
(of certain mechanical devices) to detect physical phenomena, as light, temperature, radioactivity, etc., mechanically, electrically, or photoelectrically.
Computers. to read (punched holes, tape, data, etc.) mechanically, electrically, or photoelectrically.
Idioms for sense
come to one's senses, to regain one's good judgment or realistic point of view; become reasonable.
in a sense, according to one explanation or view; to a certain extent: In a sense it may have been the only possible solution.
make sense, to be reasonable or comprehensible: His attitude doesn't make sense.
Origin of sense
First recorded in 1350–1400; (noun) Middle English, from Middle French sens, from Latin sēnsus “sensation, feeling, understanding,” equivalent to sent(īre) “to feel” + -sus, a variant of -tus, suffix of verbal action; (verb) derivative of the noun
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.13. See meaning.
In the absence of any competitions on the horizon, I just didn’t see how it made any sense to practice.
School Sports Became ‘Clubs’ Amid the Pandemic – Now Two Coaches Are Out|Ashly McGlone|September 17, 2020|Voice of San Diego
While I call these outlooks “depressed,” I mean it only in an economic sense.
There’s growing consensus that oil demand won’t make a comeback|eamonbarrett|September 17, 2020|Fortune
Mixing flashy sexual parts and super-simple other parts makes sense for the plant kingdom’s extreme parasites.
‘Vampire’ parasite challenges the definition of a plant|Susan Milius|September 16, 2020|Science News For Students
This makes sense — our previous research shows that playoff experience matters a lot in the NBA.
The Miami Heat Act Like They’ve Been Here Before. They (Mostly) Haven’t.|Andres Waters|September 15, 2020|FiveThirtyEight
In the future, Microsoft reckons it could make sense to co-locate such underwater data centers with offshore wind farms.
Microsoft hails success of its undersea data center experiment—and says it could have implications on dry land, too|David Meyer|September 15, 2020|Fortune
But give the Kingdom credit for its sense of mercy: The lashes will be administered only 50 at a time.
In Defense of Blasphemy|Michael Tomasky|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
It may be fun and it may get them paid, until oversaturation ruins our sense for irony and destroys the market for it.
Trolls and Martyrdom: Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie|Arthur Chu|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
So in that sense we have gotten close to the families that have lost loved ones, be it from one side or the other.
Mexico’s Priests Are Marked for Murder|Jason McGahan|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
This is acting in every sense of the word—bringing an unevolved animal to life and making it utterly believable.
Oscars 2015: The Daily Beast’s Picks, From Scarlett Johansson to ‘Boyhood’|Marlow Stern|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“I sense that mobile games are starting to shed their skin, getting rid of all the dead things they carry around,” he says.
Lost For Thousands of Strokes: 'Desert Golfing' Is 'Angry Birds' as Modern Art|Alec Kubas-Meyer|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
For he was in no sense as nobly human of stature, as deeply aware of the life about him, as Moussorgsky.
Musical Portraits|Paul Rosenfeld
When he tired of the tumult of the bar-room and a sense of his better self came over him, some one said: "Give us another, Tom."
Wit, Humor, Reason, Rhetoric, Prose, Poetry and Story Woven into Eight Popular Lectures|George W. Bain
New value will be given to craftsmanship and a sense of dedication—now almost unknown—to those who direct it.
The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day|Evelyn Underhill
This conception is akin to that of potential, except that it is given to us directly by our sense of heat.
I think this must have been after that act of His which gave us a sense of surpassing swiftness.
My Little Sister|Elizabeth Robins
British Dictionary definitions for sense
sense
/ (sɛns) /
noun
any of the faculties by which the mind receives information about the external world or about the state of the body. In addition to the five traditional faculties of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, the term includes the means by which bodily position, temperature, pain, balance, etc, are perceived
such faculties collectively; the ability to perceive
a feeling perceived through one of the sensesa sense of warmth
a mental perception or awarenessa sense of happiness
moral discernment; understandinga sense of right and wrong
(sometimes plural)sound practical judgment or intelligencehe is a man without any sense
reason or purposewhat is the sense of going out in the rain?
substance or gist; meaningwhat is the sense of this proverb?
specific meaning; definitionin what sense are you using the word?
an opinion or consensus
mathsone of two opposite directions measured on a directed line; the sign as contrasted with the magnitude of a vector
logiclinguistics
the import of an expression as contrasted with its referent. Thus the morning star and the evening star have the same reference, Venus, but different senses
the property of an expression by virtue of which its referent is determined
that which one grasps in understanding an expression
make senseto be reasonable or understandable
take leave of one's senses See leave 2 (def. 8)
verb(tr)
to perceive through one or more of the senses
to apprehend or detect without or in advance of the evidence of the senses
to understand
computing
to test or locate the position of (a part of computer hardware)
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.
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.