Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Sound judgment not based on specialized knowledge; native good judgment.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Characterized by common or good sense: as, he took a common-sense view of the question. See common sense, under common, a. Synonyms Intelligent, etc. See
sensible .
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete An internal sense, formerly believed to be the sense by which information from the other five senses is understood and interpreted.
- n. Ordinary sensible understanding; one's basic intelligence which allows for plain understanding and without which good decisions or judgments cannot be made.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. [Obs.] Sound judgment. See under Sense.
- See Common sense, under sense.
- n. When the substantive is emphasized: “Native practical intelligence, natural prudence, mother wit, tact in behavior, acuteness in the observation of character, in contrast to habits of acquired learning or of speculation.”
WordNet 3.0
- n. sound practical judgment
- adj. exhibiting native good judgment
Etymologies
- After Latin sensus communis, Ancient Greek κοινὴ αἴσθησις. (Wiktionary)
- Translation of Latin sēnsus commūnis, common feelings of humanity. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“GRUNERT: Then it appears that the organization seemed to be faulty, and its instruction faulty, and there seemed to be a lack of organization and common sense and reason on this.”
“The blame is not all on the oil companies ..... they carry the brunt of it out of greed and total disregard for the environment they work in over cutting corners and profit-minded idiots who overlook common sense approaches to anticipate things like this happening and just overlooking it to save money.”
“This was not as well understood back when the butter-or-margarine debate was at its height, and many of us made the switch without much evidence except for the common sense that less saturated fat meant healthier food.”
“The Story of Stuff is a brilliantly argued triumph of common sense and optimism.”
“Like so many of the early nineteenth-century reformers on whom we look back as the Utopian Socialists, Robert Owen, the “benevolent Mr. Owen of New Lanark,” was a strange mixture of practicality and naïveté, achievement and fiasco, common sense and lunacy.”
“When it comes to diet and nutrition, a lot of what actually works is good old common sense and what weve been told all alongeat more fruits and vegetables; stay away from processed foods and starchy, bad carbs; eat smaller meals throughout the day.”
“The EAPeasers were spinning merrily to the contrary—after all, it was only the president who had declared it “kaput”—and it was left to the common sense of the American people to decide what the facts were.”
“Soccer moms are smart, not just brainy in that librarian-about-to-take-her-hair-down way, but charged with a brand of common sense that conveys sufficiency of a superior, and way-sexy, grade.”
“Husserl's motto was “Back to the things themselves,” by which he meant back to our actual experience without the layer of common sense and scientific pre - suppositions which hide the “experienced phenom - ena” from us.”
“He was forty-six, a short stocky Lowland Scot from Jedburgh (hence his name), whose plain common sense had appealed to my uncle after the turmoil stirred up by an arrogant predecessor.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘common sense’.
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Words related to knowledge
Words that relate to learning, knowing, being enlightened...
revelation, eureka, awakening, idea, sapient, astute, canny, intelligent, wise, sharp, shrewd, informed and 467 more...
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BUSI - collocations
chattel mortgage, stock option, tax shelter, discount store, enterprise zone, savings bond, commodity brokerage, liquor licence, credit bureau, bank draft, capital gain, junk bond and 192 more...
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the clash
two different words that create temporary or permanent confusion when put together (a lexical paradox).
paradoxic juxtapositions, or atypical oxymorons unlike the ones in these lists...ambidextrous dysl..., inverted erection, publicly private, cohesive disinteg..., suspended launch, controlled chaos, calm panic, mathematical joke, moral hazard, simple complexity, flightless bird, scared stiff and 60 more...
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That's funny...
words that make you smile...
can be funny words, oxymorons or words describing laughter and fun.giggle, sniggle, snicker, chuckle, titter, guffaw, smile, hoot, twitter, hee-haw, tee-hee, snort and 68 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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My Modern Job in the Past
Words I come across at work.
Now stripped of most military terms, which have found a new home on the list Historical Military Terms of Interest. See also (and add to!) hilarious misspe...chaise-marine, delft, delftware, quince, tympan, cresset, navvy, venn diagram, poop deck, apothecary, heliotrope, millinery and 294 more...
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Tunie: Tom Paine's Bones
Written by Graham Moore; performed by a number of people (but notably Dick Gaughan).
As I dreamed out one evening
By a river of discontent
I bumped straight into old Tom Pa...cares, fares, cries, laughs, nobody, plan, monarchy, religion, rights of man, age of reason, hill, paper and 16 more...
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Things I detest
lies, liars, idiocy, ignorance, superficiality, promiscuity, balloons, yellow, pink, socializing, norms, common sense and 40 more...
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The O.U.P. Junior Dictionary Neophytes
Counterpart to the Death Row list.
blog, broadband, mp3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue, celebrity and 40 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for common sense.
Telofy "Common sense isn't." -- Carol Schaffer Sep 24, 2008
bilby Sometimes not that common :-( Sep 1, 2008