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Sense definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SENSE, n. [from L. sensus, from sentio, to feel or perceive.]
1. The faculty of the soul by which it perceives external objects by means of impressions made on certain organs of the boky.
Sense is a branch of perception. the five senses of animals are sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.
2. Sensation; perception by the senses.
3. Perception by the intellect; apprehension; discernment.
4. Sensibility; quickness or acuteness of perception.
5. Understanding; soundness of faculties; strength of natural reason.
Opprest nature sleeps;
This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses. Shak.
6. Reason; reasonable or rational meaning.
He raves; his words are loose
As heaps of sand, and scattering wide from sense. Dryden.
7. Opinion; notion; judgement.
I speak my private but impartial sense
With freedom. Roscommon.
8. Consciousness; conviction; as a due sense of our weakness or sinfulness.
9. Moral perception.
Some are so hardened in wickedness, as to have no sense of the most friendly offices.
L'Estrange.
10. Meaning; important; signification; as the true sense of words or phrases. In interpretation, we are to examine whether words are to be understood in a literal or figurative sense. So we speak of a legal sense, a grammatical sense, an historical sense, etc.
Common sense, that power of the mind which, by a kind of instinct, or a short process of reasoning, perceives truth, the relation of things, cause and effect, etc. and hence enables the possessor to discern what is right, useful, expedient, or proper, and adopt the best meams to accomplish his purpose. This power seems to be the gift of nature, improved by experience and observation.
Moral sense, a determination of the mind to be pleased with the contemplation of those effections, actions or characters of rational agents, which are called good or virtuous.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a general conscious awareness; "a sense of security"; "a sense of happiness"; "a sense of danger"; "a sense of self"
2: the meaning of a word or expression; the way in which a word or expression or situation can be interpreted; "the dictionary gave several senses for the word"; "in the best sense charity is really a duty"; "the signifier is linked to the signified" [syn: sense, signified]
3: the faculty through which the external world is apprehended; "in the dark he had to depend on touch and on his senses of smell and hearing" [syn: sense, sensation, sentience, sentiency, sensory faculty]
4: sound practical judgment; "Common sense is not so common"; "he hasn't got the sense God gave little green apples"; "fortunately she had the good sense to run away" [syn: common sense, good sense, gumption, horse sense, sense, mother wit]
5: a natural appreciation or ability; "a keen musical sense"; "a good sense of timing" v
1: perceive by a physical sensation, e.g., coming from the skin or muscles; "He felt the wind"; "She felt an object brushing her arm"; "He felt his flesh crawl"; "She felt the heat when she got out of the car" [syn: feel, sense]
2: detect some circumstance or entity automatically; "This robot can sense the presence of people in the room"; "particle detectors sense ionization"
3: become aware of not through the senses but instinctively; "I sense his hostility"; "i smell trouble"; "smell out corruption" [syn: smell, smell out, sense]
4: comprehend; "I sensed the real meaning of his letter"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French or Latin; Anglo-French sen, sens sensation, feeling, mechanism of perception, meaning, from Latin sensus, from sentire to perceive, feel; perhaps akin to Old High German sinnan to go, strive, Old English sith journey — more at send Date: 14th century 1. a meaning conveyed or intended ; import, signification; especially one of a set of meanings a word or phrase may bear especially as segregated in a dictionary entry 2. a. the faculty of perceiving by means of sense organs b. a specialized function or mechanism (as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch) by which an animal receives and responds to external or internal stimuli c. the sensory mechanisms constituting a unit distinct from other functions (as movement or thought) 3. conscious awareness or rationality — usually used in plural <finally came to his senses> 4. a. a particular sensation or kind or quality of sensation <a good sense of balance> b. a definite but often vague awareness or impression <felt a sense of insecurity> <a sense of danger> c. a motivating awareness <a sense of shame> d. a discerning awareness and appreciation <her sense of humor> 5. consensus <the sense of the meeting> 6. a. capacity for effective application of the powers of the mind as a basis for action or response ; intelligence b. sound mental capacity and understanding typically marked by shrewdness and practicality; also agreement with or satisfaction of such power <this decision makes sense> 7. one of two opposite directions especially of motion (as of a point, line, or surface) Synonyms: sense, common sense, judgment, wisdom mean ability to reach intelligent conclusions. sense implies a reliable ability to judge and decide with soundness, prudence, and intelligence <a choice showing good sense>. common sense suggests an average degree of such ability without sophistication or special knowledge <common sense tells me it's wrong>. judgment implies sense tempered and refined by experience, training, and maturity <they relied on her judgment for guidance>. wisdom implies sense and judgment far above average <a leader of rare wisdom>. II. transitive verb (sensed; sensing) Date: circa 1531 1. a. to perceive by the senses b. to be or become conscious of <sense danger> 2. grasp, comprehend 3. to detect automatically especially in response to a physical stimulus (as light or movement)

Britannica Concise

Mechanism by which information is received about one's external or internal environment. Stimuli received by nerves, in some cases through specialized organs with receptor cells sensitive to one type of stimulus, are converted into impulses that travel to specialized areas of the brain, where they are analyzed. In addition to the "five senses"--sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch--humans have senses of motion (kinesthetic sense), heat, cold, pressure, pain, and balance. Temperature, pressure, and pain are cutaneous (skin) senses; different points on the skin are particularly sensitive to each. See also chemoreception, ear, eye, inner ear, mechanoreception, nose, photoreception, proprioception, sound reception, thermoreception, tongue, vision.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a any of the special bodily faculties by which sensation is roused (has keen senses; has a dull sense of smell). b sensitiveness of all or any of these. 2 the ability to perceive or feel or to be conscious of the presence or properties of things. 3 (foll. by of) consciousness (sense of having done well; sense of one's own importance). 4 (often foll. by of) a quick or accurate appreciation, understanding, or instinct regarding a specified matter (sense of the ridiculous; road sense; the moral sense). b the habit of basing one's conduct on such instinct. 5 practical wisdom or judgement, common sense; conformity to these (has plenty of sense; what is the sense of talking like that?; has more sense than to do that). 6 a a meaning; the way in which a word etc. is to be understood (the sense of the word is clear; I mean that in the literal sense). b intelligibility or coherence or possession of a meaning. 7 the prevailing opinion among a number of people. 8 (in pl.) a person's sanity or normal state of mind. 9 Math. etc. a a direction of movement. b that which distinguishes a pair of entities which differ only in that each is the reverse of the other. --v.tr. 1 perceive by a sense or senses. 2 be vaguely aware of. 3 realize. 4 (of a machine etc.) detect. 5 US understand. Phrases and idioms: bring a person to his or her senses 1 cure a person of folly. 2 restore a person to consciousness. come to one's senses 1 regain consciousness. 2 become sensible after acting foolishly. the five senses sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. in a (or one) sense if the statement is understood in a particular way (what you say is true in a sense). in one's senses sane. make sense be intelligible or practicable. make sense of show or find the meaning of. man of sense a sagacious man. out of one's senses in or into a state of madness (is out of her senses; frightened him out of his senses). sense-datum (pl. -data) Philos. an element of experience received through the senses. sense of direction the ability to know without guidance the direction in which one is or should be moving. sense of humour see HUMOUR. sense-organ a bodily organ conveying external stimuli to the sensory system. take leave of one's senses go mad. take the sense of the meeting ascertain the prevailing opinion. under a sense of wrong feeling wronged. Etymology: ME f. L sensus faculty of feeling, thought, meaning, f. sentire sens- feel

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(senses, sensing, sensed) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. Your senses are the physical abilities of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. She stared at him again, unable to believe the evidence of her senses. ...a keen sense of smell. N-COUNT see also sixth sense 2. If you sense something, you become aware of it or you realize it, although it is not very obvious. She probably sensed that I wasn't telling her the whole story... He looks about him, sensing danger... Prost had sensed what might happen. VERB: V that, V n, V wh 3. If you have a sense that something is the case, you think that it is the case, although you may not have firm, clear evidence for this belief. Suddenly you got this sense that people were drawing themselves away from each other... There is no sense of urgency on either side. N-SING: N that, N of n see also sense of occasion 4. If you have a sense of guilt or relief, for example, you feel guilty or relieved. When your child is struggling for life, you feel this overwhelming sense of guilt... = feeling N-SING: N of n 5. If you have a sense of something such as duty or justice, you are aware of it and believe it is important. We must keep a sense of proportion about all this... She needs to regain a sense of her own worth. N-SING: N of n 6. Someone who has a sense of timing or style has a natural ability with regard to timing or style. You can also say that someone has a bad sense of timing or style. He has an impeccable sense of timing... Her dress sense is appalling. N-SING: N of n, also n N see also sense of humour 7. Sense is the ability to make good judgments and to behave sensibly. ...when he was younger and had a bit more sense... When that doesn't work they sometimes have the sense to seek help... N-UNCOUNT see also common sense 8. If you say that there is no sense or little sense in doing something, you mean that it is not a sensible thing to do because nothing useful would be gained by doing it. There's no sense in pretending this doesn't happen... = point N-SING: with neg, N in -ing, N -ing 9. A sense of a word or expression is one of its possible meanings. ...a noun which has two senses... Then she remembered that they had no mind in any real sense of that word. = meaning N-COUNT 10. Sense is used in several expressions to indicate how true your statement is. For example, if you say that something is true in a sense, you mean that it is partly true, or true in one way. If you say that something is true in a general sense, you mean that it is true in a general way. In a sense, both were right... In one sense, the fact that few new commercial buildings can be financed does not matter... He's not the leader in a political sense... Though his background was modest, it was in no sense deprived. PHRASE: PHR with cl 11. If something makes sense, you can understand it. He was sitting there saying, 'Yes, the figures make sense.' PHRASE: V inflects 12. When you make sense of something, you succeed in understanding it. This is to help her to come to terms with her early upbringing and make sense of past experiences. PHRASE: V inflects 13. If a course of action makes sense, it seems sensible. It makes sense to look after yourself... The project should be re-appraised to see whether it made sound economic sense... PHRASE: V inflects, oft it PHR to-inf 14. If you say that someone has come to their senses or has been brought to their senses, you mean that they have stopped being foolish and are being sensible again. Eventually the world will come to its senses and get rid of them... PHRASE: V inflects 15. If you say that someone seems to have taken leave of their senses, you mean that they have done or said something very foolish. (OLD-FASHIONED) They looked at me as if I had taken leave of my senses. PHRASE: V inflects 16. If you say that someone talks sense, you mean that what they say is sensible. PHRASE: V inflects 17. If you have a sense that something is true or get a sense that something is true, you think that it is true. (mainly SPOKEN) Do you have the sense that you are loved by the public? PHRASE: V inflects 18. to see sense: see see

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Faculty of perception. 2. Feeling, sensation, perception. 3. Intellect, mind, understanding, reason, brains, thinking principle. 4. Discernment, perception, apprehension, understanding, appreciation, feeling, recognition, tact. 5. Opinion, judgment, notion, idea, view, sentiment. 6. Signification, meaning, import, purport, interpretation. 7. Consciousness, conviction, moral perception. 8. Reason, understanding, judgment, good mental capacity, soundness, sagacity, wisdom.

Moby Thesaurus

IQ, absorb, acceptation, admissibility, affect, affection, affective meaning, air, anticipate, appreciate, appreciation, appreciation of differences, appreciativeness, apprehend, apprehension, artistic judgment, assimilate, atmosphere, aura, awareness, balance, be aware of, be conscious of, be sensible of, be with one, bearing, believe, brains, burden, caliber, capacity, catch, catch on, center, climate, cognizance, coherence, coloring, common sense, comprehend, comprehension, conceive, conception, connoisseurship, connotation, consciousness, consequence, consider, cool head, coolheadedness, coolness, core, credit, critical niceness, criticalness, deductive power, deem, delicacy, denotation, descry, detect, dig, digest, discern, discernment, discretion, discriminating taste, discriminatingness, discrimination, discriminativeness, distinguish, divine, drift, due sense of, effect, emotion, emotional charge, emotional shade, esemplastic power, espy, essence, experience, extension, faculty, fastidiousness, fathom, feel, feel deeply, feel intuitively, feeling, feeling tone, fine palate, finesse, focus, follow, force, foreboding, foresight, get, get hold of, get the drift, get the idea, get the picture, gist, good sense, grammatical meaning, grasp, gumption, gut reaction, have, have a feeling, have a hunch, have a sensation, have it taped, have the impression, hear, heartthrob, hold, horse sense, idea, ideation, identify, impact, implication, import, impression, integrative power, intellect, intellectual grasp, intellectual power, intellectualism, intellectuality, intelligence, intelligence quotient, intelligibility, intendment, intension, intuit, intuition, judgement, judgment, judiciousness, just know, justifiability, justness, ken, know, knowledge, learn, level head, levelheadedness, lexical meaning, literal meaning, logic, logicality, logicalness, lucidity, make out, making distinctions, marbles, master, matter, meaning, meat, mental age, mental capacity, mental grasp, mental ratio, mentality, message, milieu, mind, mother wit, native wit, niceness of distinction, nicety, note, notice, nous, nuance, nucleus, overtone, palate, passion, penetration, perceive, percept, perception, pertinence, pick up, pith, plain sense, plausibility, point, power of mind, practical consequence, practical mind, practical wisdom, practicality, presentiment, profound sense, prudence, purport, quality, quick-wittedness, quickness, range of meaning, rationality, reaction, read, real meaning, realize, reason, reasonability, reasonableness, reasoning power, receive an impression, recognition, recognize, reference, referent, refined discrimination, refined palate, refinement, relation, relevance, respond, respond to stimuli, response, response to stimuli, sagacity, saneness, sanity, savvy, scope, scope of mind, see, seize, seize the meaning, selectiveness, semantic cluster, semantic field, sensation, sense impression, sense perception, sensibility, sensibleness, sensitivity, sensory experience, sentiment, short, significance, significancy, signification, significatum, signifie, smarts, smell, sober-mindedness, soberness, sobriety, sound sense, soundness, span of meaning, spirit, spot, spy, structural meaning, substance, subtlety, sum, sum and substance, suspect, sweet reason, symbolic meaning, tact, tactfulness, take, take in, taste, tenor, think, thinking power, thrust, tone, totality of associations, touch, transferred meaning, unadorned meaning, undercurrent, understand, understanding, undertone, upshot, value, wisdom, wit