sense*/*/*/

[sens] noun I

1) [U] a reasonable way of thinking about something or doing something

They must have had the sense to park the car in the shade.[/ex]

There's no sense in going ahead until the costs have been agreed.[/ex]

2) [C] a feeling or belief that you have, especially about yourself

All children need to feel a sense of pride in their achievements.[/ex]

Beth read Jake's letter with an increasing sense of panic.[/ex]

3) [singular] a way of understanding something, although there may be other ways

My family's from this area, so in a sense it's like coming home.[/ex]

In one sense, Robertson is a typical politician.[/ex]

4) [C] a natural physical ability that most people have, especially the ability to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel things

Dogs have a sense of smell that is five times more sensitive than that of humans.[/ex]

5) [C] the meaning of a word or phrase

The word ‘bank' has a number of senses.[/ex]

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come to your senses — to start to behave in a reasonable way[/ex]

At last she's come to her senses and realizes that we just can't afford it.[/ex]

make sense — 1) to be practical and sensible[/ex]

It makes sense to keep such information on disk.[/ex]

— 2) to be easy to understand

These instructions don't make any sense to me.[/ex]

make sense of sth — to understand something that is complicated or unusual[/ex]

sense of humour — the ability to laugh at things and recognize when they are funny[/ex]

II

verb [T]

sense */[sens]

to know about something through a natural ability or feeling, without being told

I think she must have sensed there was something wrong.[/ex]

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Words often used with sense Nouns often used with sense (verb) ■ SENSE + atmosphere, danger, fear, mood, presence, tension, unease know that something exists without being told