Sinn

See also: sinn and sinni

German

Etymology

From Middle High German sin, from Old High German sin, from Proto-Germanic *sinnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /zɪn/

Noun

Sinn m (genitive Sinnes or Sinns, plural Sinne)

  1. sense
  2. meaning, sense (the objects or concept that a word or phrase denotes, or that which a sentence says)
    • 1930, Paul Joachimsen, Der Humanismus und die Entwicklung des deutschen Geistes, in: Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, 8, page 421:
      Er hat schon als Kind, bevor er noch den Sinn lateinischer Worte versteht, ein Ohr für die Schönheit der Perioden Ciceros und der Verse Virgils.
      Already as a child, before he yet understands the meaning of Latin words, he has an ear for the beauty of the periods of Cicero and the verses of Virgil.
  3. point, idea, tenor
  4. mind, consciousness
    • Bach, BWV 106, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit:
      Getrost ist mir mein Herz und Sinn, sanft und stille.
      Comforted are my heart and mind, calm and quiet.
  5. feeling
  6. (medicine) sense, sensus, aesthesia

Declension

  • The dative singular dem Sinne is still often used after the preposition in in a number of more or less fixed expressions, such as in diesem Sinne (“in this sense/spirit”), in gewissem Sinne (“in a sense”), in übertragenem Sinne (“in a figurative sense”), and so on.

Derived terms

See also

Further reading

  • Sinn in Duden online
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