sense

Reading level: medium

Estimated CEFR level: A2 — Elementary

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a general conscious awareness
  2. noun the meaning of a word or expression; the way in which a word or expression or situation can be interpreted
  3. noun the faculty through which the external world is apprehended

Etymology

From Middle English sense, from Old French sens, sen, san (“sense, perception, direction”); partly from Latin sēnsus (“sensation, feeling, meaning”), from sentiō (“feel, perceive”); partly of Germanic origin (whence also Occitan sen, Italian senno), from Vulgar Latin *sennus (“sense, reason, way”), from Frankish *sinn ("reason, judgement, mental faculty, way, direction"; whence also Dutch zin, German Sinn, Swedish sinne, Norwegian sinn). Both Latin and Germanic from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”).

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