sense

The word “sense” means one of the physical faculties — sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch — through which the body perceives the world. In plain terms, can mean a physical faculty (like smell), sound judgment, the meaning of a word, or the act of noticing something intuitively.

“Sense” is pronounced sehns (/sɛns/ in IPA).

Here is “sense” used in a sentence: “Dogs have a much stronger sense of smell than humans.”

Words with a similar meaning to “sense” include non-nonsense.

Depending on how it is used, “sense” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “sense” comes from Latin. From Old French sens, partly from Latin sensus ("feeling, meaning," from sentiō, "to feel"), partly from a Germanic root meaning "judgment" or "direction.".

“Sense” is a very common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A2 level.

“Sense” has 4 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: one of the physical faculties — sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch — through which the body perceives the world.

The five traditional senses are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Each uses specific organs — the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin — to gather information about the world and send it to the brain. Some scientists argue humans have more senses, such as balance and the perception of temperature or pain.

In everyday speech, a 'sixth sense' means intuition — a feeling about something without clear evidence. Scientifically, the five-sense model is a simplification: the body also detects balance, body position, temperature, and pain. So while there is no mystical sixth sense, we genuinely perceive far more than five things about the world.

The senses are the physical faculties — sight, hearing, and so on — that detect signals from the world. Perception is what the brain does with those signals: interpreting, organising, and making sense of them. Your eyes sense light, but perception is how you recognise a familiar face. One gathers information, the other understands it.

Yes. Illness, injury, or ageing can weaken or remove a sense — for example, blindness affects sight and deafness affects hearing. When one sense is lost, the others often sharpen to compensate. Some senses, such as smell, can also fade temporarily through infection and later return once the person recovers.