senseperceive, grasp, comprehendNot to be confused with:cents ? pennies, bronze coinsscents ? odors, perfumessince ? from then until now; between then and now; before nowAbused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree Copyright © 2007, 2013 by Mary Embreesense (s?ns)n.1. a. 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.b. A perception or feeling produced by a stimulus; sensation: a sense of fatigue and hunger.2. senses The faculties of sensation as means of providing physical gratification and pleasure.3. a. An intuitive or acquired perception or ability to estimate: a sense of diplomatic timing.b. A capacity to appreciate or understand: a keen sense of humor.c. A vague feeling or presentiment: a sense of impending doom.d. Recognition or perception either through the senses or through the intellect; consciousness: has no sense of shame.4. a. Natural understanding or intelligence, especially in practical matters: The boy had sense and knew just what to do when he got lost.b. often senses The normal ability to think or reason soundly: Have you taken leave of your senses?c. Something sound or reasonable: There’s no sense in waiting three hours.5. a. A meaning that is conveyed, as in speech or writing; signification: The sense of the criticism is that the proposal has certain risks.b. One of the meanings of a word or phrase: The word set has many senses.6. a. Judgment; consensus: sounding out the sense of the electorate on capital punishment.b. Intellectual interpretation, as of the significance of an event or the conclusions reached by a group: I came away from the meeting with the sense that we had resolved all outstanding issues.tr.v. sensed, sens·ing, sens·es 1. To become aware of; perceive: organisms able to sense their surroundings.2. To grasp; understand: sensed that the financial situation would improve.3. To detect automatically: sense radioactivity.adj. Genetics Of or relating to the portion of the strand of double-stranded DNA that serves as a template for and is transcribed into RNA.[Middle English, meaning, from Old French sens, from Latin s?nsus, the faculty of perceiving, from past participle of sent?re, to feel; see sent- in Indo-European roots.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.sense (s?ns) n1. (Physiology) 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 perceived2. (Physiology) such faculties collectively; the ability to perceive3. (Physiology) a feeling perceived through one of the senses: a sense of warmth. 4. a mental perception or awareness: a sense of happiness. 5. moral discernment; understanding: a sense of right and wrong. 6. (sometimes plural) sound practical judgment or intelligence: he is a man without any sense. 7. reason or purpose: what is the sense of going out in the rain?. 8. substance or gist; meaning: what is the sense of this proverb?. 9. specific meaning; definition: in what sense are you using the word?. 10. an opinion or consensus11. (Mathematics) maths one of two opposite directions measured on a directed line; the sign as contrasted with the magnitude of a vector12. (Logic) logic linguistics a. 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 sensesb. the property of an expression by virtue of which its referent is determinedc. that which one grasps in understanding an expression13. (Linguistics) logic linguistics a. 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 sensesb. the property of an expression by virtue of which its referent is determinedc. that which one grasps in understanding an expression14. make sense to be reasonable or understandable15. take leave of one’s senses See leave28vb (tr) 16. (Physiology) to perceive through one or more of the senses17. to apprehend or detect without or in advance of the evidence of the senses18. to understand19. (Computer Science) computing a. to test or locate the position of (a part of computer hardware)b. to read (data)[C14: from Latin s?nsus, from sent?re to feel]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014sense (s?ns) n., v. sensed, sens?ing. n. 1. 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. 2. these faculties collectively. 3. their operation or function; sensation. 4. a feeling or perception produced through one of the senses: a sense of cold. 5. a faculty or function of the mind analogous to a physical sense: the moral sense. 6. any special capacity for perception, estimation, appreciation, etc.: a sense of humor. 7. Usu., senses. sanity: Have you taken leave of your senses? 8. a more or less vague perception or impression: a sense of security. 9. a mental discernment, realization, or recognition: a sense of value. 10. a motivating awareness: a sense of duty. 11. sound practical intelligence. 12. reasonable thought or discourse: to talk sense. 13. substance or gist; content: You missed the sense of his statement. 14. value; merit: There’s no sense in worrying. 15. a DNA sequence that is capable of coding for an amino acid (disting. from nonsense). 16. the meaning of a word or phrase in a specific context, esp. as isolated in a dictionary or glossary. 17. consensus: the sense of a meeting. v.t. 18. to perceive by the senses; become aware of. 19. to grasp the meaning of; understand. 20. to detect (physical phenomena, as light or temperature) mechanically, electrically, or photoelectrically. Idioms: 1. in a sense, to some extent; in a way: In a sense, the book was oddly gripping. 2. make sense, to be reasonable or comprehensible. [1350?1400; Middle English (n.)