# sense
## English
### Alternative forms

* sence (archaic)

### Etymology

From Middle English sense, from Old French sens, sen, san (“sense, perception, direction”); partly from Latin sēnsus (“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 Frankish *sinn ("reason, judgement, mental faculty, way, direction"; whence also Dutch zin, German Sinn, Swedish sinne, Norwegian sinn). Both Latin and Germanic from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”).

### Pronunciation

* enPR: sĕns, IPA: /sɛn(t)s/
* Audio (General American):(file)
* Audio (UK):(file)
* (pin–pen merger) IPA: /sɪn(t)s/
* Rhymes: -ɛns
* Homophones: cents, scents; since (pin–pen merger)

### Noun

sense (countable and uncountable, plural senses)
* Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.
** c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:What surmounts the reach / Of human sense I shall delineate.
* Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.
    a sense of security
** a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:this Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover
** 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:high disdain from sense of injured merit
** 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XLIII, page 66:The days have vanish’d, tone and tint, ⁠And yet perhaps the hoarding sense ⁠Gives out at times (he knows not whence) A little flash, a mystic hint; […]
** 1990 December 16, Laura Briggs, quoting Robert Weinerman, “Gay Students Fight 'Little War' At Mass. School”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 22, page 15:Where a college administration does not come forward and say that gay people have a right to be here, there is a sense among students that it is acceptable to harass and intimidate lesbian and gay members of that community.
* Sound practical or moral judgment.
    It’s common sense not to put metal objects in a microwave oven.
** 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:some People so Harden'd in Wickedness, as to have No Sense at all of the most Friendly Offices, or the Highest Benefits.
* The meaning, reason, or value of something.
    You don’t make any sense.
** Any particular meaning of a word, among its various meanings.
    Hyponyms: subsense, subsubsense
    word sense disambiguation
    the various senses of the word “car” (e.g., motor car, elevator car, railcar)
** (semantics, lexicography) A single conventional use of a word; one of the entries or definitions for a word in a dictionary.
*** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Nehemiah 8:8:So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense.
*** c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:I think ’twas in another sense.
* A natural appreciation or ability.
    A keen musical sense
* (pragmatics) The way that a referent is presented.
* (mathematics) One of two opposite directions in which a vector (especially of motion) may point. See also polarity.
* (mathematics) One of two opposite directions of rotation, clockwise versus anti-clockwise.
* (biochemistry) referring to the strand of a nucleic acid that directly specifies the product.
* A word sense, one of the meanings of a word.

#### Synonyms

* non-nonsense

#### Hyponyms

* business sense
* common sense
* fashion sense
* sense of humor / sense of humour
* sixth sense
* time sense
* transferred sense
* See also Thesaurus:sense

#### Derived terms

* abound in one's own sense
* aftersense
* air sense
* come to one's senses
* common sense
* court sense
* dress sense
* enough sense to pound sand into a rathole
* game sense
* good sense
* horse sense
* in a sense
* in every sense of the word
* in the Biblical sense
* in the biblical sense
* knock some sense into
* know someone in the Biblical sense
* know someone in the biblical sense
* make it make sense
* make sense
* moral sense
* more dollars than sense
* more money than sense
* my spider sense is tingling
* negative sense
* nonsense
* non-sense
* no sense no feeling
* positive sense
* present sense impression
* see sense
* sense amplifier
* sense body
* sense capsule
* sense datum
* sense of craft
* sense of direction
* sense of place
* sense of time
* sense organ
* sense strand
* snail-sense feminism
* Spider sense
* spider-sense
* Spider-sense
* spider sense
* Spidey sense
* Spidey-sense
* spidey-sense
* spidey sense
* strict-sense stationary
* subsense
* talk sense
* where there's no sense there's no feeling
* word sense

#### Related terms

* extrasensory
* sensation
* sensible
* sensical
* sensitive
* sensor
* sensorium
* sensual
* sensuous

#### Descendants

* → Afrikaans: sense

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### See also

* audition
* equilibrioception
* gustation
* hearing
* nociception
* olfaction
* proprioception
* sight
* smell
* tactition
* taste
* thermoception
* touch
* vision

### Verb

sense (third-person singular simple present senses, present participle sensing, simple past and past participle sensed)
* To use biological senses: to either see, hear, smell, taste, or feel.
* To instinctively be aware.
    She immediately sensed her disdain.
* To comprehend.

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### References

* “sense”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* sense (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* sense on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* word sense on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

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

## Afrikaans
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from English sense.

#### Noun

sense (uncountable)
* sense, good sense

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

sense
* plural of sens

## Catalan
### Alternative forms

* sens

### Etymology

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.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central) [ˈsen.sə]
* IPA: (Balearic) [ˈsən.sə]
* IPA: (Valencia) [ˈsen.se]
* Audio:(file)

### Preposition

sense
* without
    Antonym: amb

#### Derived terms

* sensefeina
* sensesostre

### Further reading

* “sense” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “sense”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “sense” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “sense” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Chuukese
### Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese 先生 (sensei).

### Noun

sense
* teacher

## Dutch
### Noun

sense
* Only used in sense maken

## Latin
### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈsen.se/, [ˈs̠ẽːs̠ɛ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈsen.se/, [ˈsɛnse]

### Participle

sēnse
* vocative masculine singular of sēnsus

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* sens, sence

### Etymology

From Old French sens, from Latin sensus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sɛns/

### Noun

sense (plural senses)
* meaning, signification; interpretation

#### Descendants

* English: sense
* Yola: zense

#### References

* “sens(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

## Occitan
### Alternative forms

* sens
* shens (Gascony)

### Etymology

From a variant of Latin sine (“without”), influenced by absēns (“absent, remote”).

### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Preposition

sense
* without

### References

* Diccionari General de la Lenga Occitana, L’Academia occitana – Consistòri del Gai Saber, 2008-2024, page 556.

## Spanish
### Verb

sense
* inflection of sensar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative