n.
- a faculty by which the body perceives an external stimulus; one of the faculties of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.
▸
(
one's senses)
one's sanity:
she seems to have taken leave of her senses.
- an awareness of something or feeling that something is the case.
- a sane and realistic attitude to situations and problems.
▸a reasonable or comprehensible rationale.
- a way in which an expression or situation can be interpreted; a meaning.
- chiefly Mathematics & Physics the property distinguishing two opposite but otherwise identical things, e.g. motion in opposite directions.
-
[as modifier]
Genetics relating to or denoting a coding sequence of nucleotides, complementary to an antisense sequence.
v.
- perceive by a sense or senses.
▸be vaguely or indefinably aware of.
- (of a machine or similar device) detect.
Phrase
- make sense
be intelligible, justifiable, or practicable. - make sense of
find meaning or coherence in.
Etymology
ME: from L. sensus ‘faculty of feeling, thought, meaning’, from sentire ‘feel’.