1a faculty by which the body perceives an external stimulus; one of the faculties of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch:the bear has a keen sense of smell which enables it to hunt at dusk
2a feeling that something is the case:she had the sense of being a political outsideryou can improve your general health and sense of well-being
a keen intuitive awareness of or sensitivity to the presence or importance of something:she had a fine sense of comic timing
3 [mass noun] a sane and realistic attitude to situations and problems:he earned respect by the good sense he showed at meetings
a reasonable or comprehensible rationale:I can’t see the sense in leaving all the work to you
4a way in which an expression or a situation can be interpreted; a meaning:it is not clear which sense of the word ‘characters’ is intended in this passage
5chiefly Mathematics & Physics a property (e.g. direction of motion) distinguishing a pair of objects, quantities, effects, etc. which differ only in that each is the reverse of the other:the cord does not become straight, but forms a length of helix in the opposite sense
[as modifier] Genetics relating to or denoting a coding sequence of nucleotides, complementary to an antisense sequence.
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Universal
1perceive by a sense or senses:with the first frost, they could sense a change in the days
be aware of (something) without being able to define exactly how one knows:she could sense her father’s anger rising [with clause]:he could sense that he wasn’t liked
2(of a machine or similar device) detect:an optical fibre senses a current flowing in a conductor
bring someone to their (or come to one's) senses
restore someone to (or regain) consciousness:for a few minutes I was shell-shocked but I was quickly brought to my senses
cause someone to (or start to) think and behave reasonably after a period of folly or irrationality:the shock of the deal falling through brought her to her senses and made her realize how serious the situation was
in a (or one) sense
by a particular interpretation of a statement or situation:in a sense, behaviour cannot develop independently of the environment
in one's senses
fully aware and in control of one’s thoughts and words; sane:would any man in his senses invent so absurd a story?
make sense
be intelligible, justifiable, or practicable:it makes sense to start saving early for higher educationthe policy made economic sense
make sense of
find meaning or coherence in:she must try to make sense of what was going on
out of one's senses
in or into a state of madness.
take leave of one's senses
(in hyperbolic use) go mad:she began to beat her chest as though she had taken leave of her senses
