Pronunciation Adjective
sensible
- (now dated or formal) Perceptible by the senses.
- 1751, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies (page 1)
- Air is sensible to the Touch by its Motion, and by its Resistance to Bodies moved in it.
- 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.
- 1751, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies (page 1)
- Easily perceived; appreciable.
- The disgrace was more sensible than the pain.
- 1776 March 8, Adam Smith, chapter 11, in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. [...] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], OCLC 762139 ↗, book I (Of the Causes of Improvement in the Productive Powers of Labour, […]), page 241 ↗:
- The discovery of the mines of America […] does not seem to have had any very sensible effect upon the prices of things in England.
- (archaic) Able to feel or perceive.
- c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:
- Would your cambric were sensible as your finger.
- (archaic) Liable to external impression; easily affected; sensitive.
- a sensible thermometer
- c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene viii]:
- with affection wondrous sensible
- Of or pertaining to the senses; sensory.
- (archaic) Cognizant; having the perception of something; aware of something.
- 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Thomas Basset, […], OCLC 153628242 ↗:, Book II, Chapter I
- He cannot think at any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it.
, Extracts from the diary of a lover of literature - we are now sensible that it would have been absurd
- 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: Printed [by Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], OCLC 731622352 ↗, pages 213–214 ↗:
- Diſingaging myſelf then from his embrace, I made him ſenſible of the reaſons there were for his preſent leaving me; on which, tho' reluctantly, he put on his cloaths with as little expedition, however, as he could help, wantonly interrupting himſelf between whiles, with kiſſes, touches, and embraces, I could not refuſe myſelf to; [...]
- 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.
- 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 230b.
- Characterized more by usefulness or practicality than by fashionableness, especially of clothing.
- 1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust (novel) (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.
- 1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust (novel) (2001 Perennial Edition), page 8,
- German: wahrnehmbar
- Russian: ощути́мый
- German: spürbar
- Russian: ощути́мый
- French: sensible
- Russian: восприи́мчивый
- Russian: сознаю́щий
- French: sensé, raisonnable
- German: vernünftig
- Italian: giudizioso, di buon senso, ragionevole
- Portuguese: sensato
- Russian: разу́мный
- Spanish: razonable, sensato, sesudo
- Russian: практи́чный
sensible (plural sensibles)
- (obsolete) Sensation; sensibility.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book 2”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
- Our temper changed […] which must needs remove the sensible of pain.
- (obsolete) That which impresses itself on the senses; anything perceptible.
- Aristotle distinguished sensibles into common and proper.
- (obsolete) That which has sensibility; a sensitive being.
- This melancholy extends itself not to men only, but even to vegetals and sensibles.
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