sense
Definitions
General English
- noun one of the five ways in which you notice something (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch)
- noun the fact of being sensible
General Science
- noun one of the five faculties by which a person or animal notices things in the outside world
- verb to be aware of something without being directly told
Aviation
- noun manner, way
Computing
- verb to examine the state of a device or electronic component
Electronics
- The ability of a component, device, piece of equipment, system, or entity, to detect or otherwise perceive a given phenomenon, state, or condition. Also, the action of such perception. For example, to detect a direction or polarity, or to be aware of the state of a relay.
- In computers, to read data. Also, a read operation.
Information & Library Science
- noun the possible meaning of words or phrases
- verb to become aware of something either personally or through a machine
Medical
- noun one of the five faculties by which a person notices things in the outside world: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch
- noun the ability to discern or judge something
Origin & History of “sense”
Sense comes ultimately from Latin sentīre ‘feel’, a prodigious contributor to English vocabulary (it is also the source of assent (13th c.), consent, dissent (16th c.), resent, sentence, sentient (17th c.), and sentiment). From it was derived the noun sēnsus ‘faculty of perceiving’, which was borrowed by English as sense. And sēnsus in turn spawned its own derivatives, which have given English sensation (17th c.), sensible (14th c.), sensitive (14th c.), sensual (15th c.), and sensuous (17th c.).
