Etimology
From Middle English sense, from Old French sens, sen, san (“sense, reason, 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”).
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.
Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.
Sound practical or moral judgment.
The meaning, reason, or value of something.
A natural appreciation or ability.
(pragmatics) The way that a referent is presented.
(semantics) A single conventional use of a word; one of the entries for a word in a dictionary.
(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.
Examples
Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep.
What surmounts the reach / Of human sense I shall delineate.
a sense of security
this Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover
high disdain from sense of injured merit
The days have vanish’d, tone and tint,And yet perhaps the hoarding senseGives out at times A little flash, a mystic hint; […]
It’s common sense not to put metal objects in a microwave oven.
some People so Harden'd in Wickedness, as to have No Sense at all of the most Friendly Offices, or the Highest Benefits.
You don’t make any sense.
word sense disambiguation
the various senses of the word “car”
So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense.
I think ’twas in another sense.
A keen musical sense
The word “set” has various senses.
Related words
synonyms
non-nonsense
hyponyms
business sense
common sense
fashion sense
sense of humor / sense of humour
sixth sense
time sense
transferred sense
related terms
extrasensory
sensation
sensible
sensitive
sensor
sensorium
sensual
sensuous
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.
To comprehend.
Examples
She immediately sensed her disdain.