Sense Definition

sĕns
sensed, senses, sensing
noun
senses
The ability of the nerves and the brain to receive and react to stimuli, as light, sound, impact, constriction, etc.; specif., any of five faculties of receiving impressions through specific bodily organs and the nerves associated with them (sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing)
Webster's New World
Feeling, impression, or perception through the senses.
A sense of warmth, pain, etc.
Webster's New World
The faculties of sensation as means of providing physical gratification and pleasure.
American Heritage
The senses considered as a total function of the bodily organism, as distinguished from intellect, movement, etc.
Webster's New World
An ability to judge, discriminate, or estimate external conditions, sounds, etc.
A sense of direction, pitch, etc.
Webster's New World
verb
sensed, senses, sensing
To be or become aware of.
To sense another's hostility.
Webster's New World
To comprehend; understand.
Webster's New World
To detect automatically, as by sensors.
Webster's New World

To use biological senses: to either smell, watch, taste, hear or feel.

Wiktionary
Antonyms:
adjective
Of or relating to the portion of the strand of double-stranded DNA that serves as a template for and is transcribed into RNA.
American Heritage Medicine
other
See also sense.
Wiktionary
idiom
in a sense
  • to a limited extent or degree
  • in one aspect
Webster's New World
make sense
  • to be intelligible or logical
Webster's New World
make sense of
  • to find meaning in; understand
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Sense

Noun

Singular:
sense
Plural:
senses

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Sense

Origin of Sense

  • From Middle English sense, 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 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"). Compare French assener (“to thrust out"), forcené (“maniac"). More at send.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English meaning from Old French sens from Latin sēnsus the faculty of perceiving from past participle of sentīre to feel sent- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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