sensible

Etymology

From Latin sēnsibilis (“perceptible by the senses, having feeling, sensible”), from sentiō (“to feel, perceive”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsen.sə.bl̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛn.sɪ.bl̩/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

sensible (comparative more sensible, superlative most sensible)

1. (now dated or formal) Perceptible by the senses.
   • Arbuthnot

     Air is sensible to the touch by its motion.

   • 1778, William Lewis, The New Dispensatory (page 91)

     The sensible qualities of argentina promise no great virtue of this kind; for to the taste it discovers only a slight roughishness, from whence it may be presumed to be entitled to a place only among the milder corroborants.

   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Folio Society 2008, page 45:

     It has been vouchsafed, for example, to very few Christian believers to have had a sensible vision of their Saviour.

2. Easily perceived; appreciable.
   • Sir W. Temple

     The disgrace was more sensible than the pain.

   • Adam Smith

     The discovery of the mines of America […] does not seem to have had any very sensible effect upon the prices of things in England.

3. (archaic) Able to feel or perceive.
   • Shakespeare

     Would your cambric were sensible as your finger.

4. (archaic) Liable to external impression; easily affected; sensitive.

   a sensible thermometer

   • Shakespeare

     with affection wondrous sensible

5. Of or pertaining to the senses; sensory.
6. (archaic) Cognizant; having the perception of something; aware of something.
   • John Locke

     He cannot think at any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it.

   • Addison

     They are now sensible it would have been better to comply than to refuse.

7. Acting with or showing good sense; able to make good judgements based on reason.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 230b.

     They ask questions of someone who thinks he's got something sensible to say on some matter when actually he hasn't.

8. Characterized more by usefulness or practicality than by fashionableness, especially of clothing.
   • 1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust (2001 Perennial Edition), page 8,

     They would walk, on fair evenings, around the village, and discuss the theory of crop rotation, and the weather, and other such sensible matters.

Noun

sensible (plural sensibles)

1. (obsolete) Sensation; sensibility.
   • Milton

     Our temper changed […] which must needs remove the sensible of pain.

2. (obsolete) That which impresses itself on the senses; anything perceptible.
   • Krauth-Fleming

     Aristotle distinguished sensibles into common and proper.

3. (obsolete) That which has sensibility; a sensitive being.
   • Burton

     This melancholy extends itself not to men only, but even to vegetals and sensibles.

Further reading

• sensible in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• sensible in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• sensible at OneLook Dictionary Search

Adjective

sensible (masculine and feminine plural sensibles)

1. sentient
2. sensitive

Etymology

From Latin sēnsibilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɑ̃.sibl/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

sensible (plural sensibles)

1. sensitive

Further reading

• “sensible” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Adjective

sensible

1. inflected form of sensibel

Etymology

From Latin sēnsibilis.

Adjective

sensible (plural sensibles)

1. sensitive