different between sound vs sensible

English

Alternative forms

• soune, sownd, sowne (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /sa?nd/
• Rhymes: -a?nd

Etymology 1

From Middle English sound, sund, isund, ?esund, from Old English sund, ?esund (“sound, safe, whole, uninjured, healthy, prosperous”), from Proto-Germanic *gasundaz, *sundaz (“healthy”), from Proto-Indo-European *sunt-, *swent- (“vigorous, active, healthy”).

Cognate with Scots sound, soun (“healthy, sound”), Saterland Frisian suund, gesuund (“healthy”), West Frisian sûn (“healthy”), Dutch gezond (“healthy, sound”), Low German sund, gesund (“healthy”), German gesund (“healthy, sound”), Danish sund (“healthy”), Swedish sund (“sound, healthy”). Related also to Dutch gezwind (“fast, quick”), German geschwind (“fast, quick”), Old English sw?þ (“strong, mighty, powerful, active, severe, violent”). See swith.

Adjective

sound (comparative sounder, superlative soundest)

1. Healthy.
2. Complete, solid, or secure.
3. (mathematics, logic) Having the property of soundness.

   Hypernym: valid
4. (Britain, slang) Good; acceptable; decent.

5. (of sleep) Quiet and deep.

6. Heavy; laid on with force.

7. Founded in law; legal; valid; not defective.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

sound (comparative more sound, superlative most sound)

1. Soundly.

Interjection

sound

1. (Britain, slang) Yes; used to show agreement or understanding, generally without much enthusiasm.

Etymology 2

• Noun: from Middle English sownde, alteration of sowne, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sun, soun, Old French son, from accusative of Latin sonus.
• Verb: from Middle English sownden, sounen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suner, sounder, Old French soner (modern sonner), from Latin son?.
• The hypercorrect -d appears in the fifteenth century.

Displaced native Middle English swei, from Old English sw??.

Noun

sound (countable and uncountable, plural sounds)

1. A sensation perceived by the ear caused by the vibration of air or some other medium.
2. A vibration capable of causing such sensations.
   • It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. […]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.

3. (music) A distinctive style and sonority of a particular musician, orchestra etc
4. Noise without meaning; empty noise.
5. Earshot, distance within which a certain noise may be heard.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:sound

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ???? (saundo)

Translations

See also

• audible

Verb

sound (third-person singular simple present sounds, present participle sounding, simple past and past participle sounded)

1. (intransitive) To produce a sound.

2. (copulative) To convey an impression by one's sound.
3. (intransitive) To be conveyed in sound; to be spread or published; to convey intelligence by sound.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To resound.
5. (intransitive, law, often with in) To arise or to be recognizable as arising in or from a particular area of law, or as likely to result in a particular kind of legal remedy.

6. (transitive) To cause to produce a sound.

7. (transitive, phonetics, of a vowel or consonant) To pronounce.

Synonyms

• (to make noise): echo, reecho, resonate
• See also Thesaurus:sound

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English sound, sund, from Old English sund (“the power, capacity, or act of swimming; swimming; sea; ocean; water; sound; strait; channel”), from Proto-Germanic *sund? (“swimming; sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *swem- (“swimming; sea”). Cognate with Dutch sond (“sound; strait”), Danish sund (“sound; strait; channel”), Swedish sund (“sound; strait; channel”), Icelandic sund (“sound; strait; channel”). Related to swim.

Noun

sound (plural sounds)

1. (geography) A long narrow inlet, or a strait between the mainland and an island; also, a strait connecting two seas, or connecting a sea or lake with the ocean.

   • The Sound of Denmarke, where ships pay toll.

2. The air bladder of a fish.

3. A cuttlefish.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ainsworth to this entry?)

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 4

From Middle English sounden, from Old French sonder, from sonde (“sounding line”) of Germanic origin, compare Old English sundgyrd (“a sounding rod”), sundline (“a sounding line”), Old English sund (“water, sea”). More at Etymology 3 above.

Verb

sound (third-person singular simple present sounds, present participle sounding, simple past and past participle sounded)

1. (intransitive) Dive downwards, used of a whale.

2. To ascertain, or try to ascertain, the thoughts, motives, and purposes of (a person); to examine; to try; to test; to probe.

   When I sounded him, he appeared to favor the proposed deal.

   • 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour

     I was in jest, / And by that offer meant to sound your breast.

   • I've sounded my Numidians man by man.

3. Test; ascertain the depth of water with a sounding line or other device.

4. (medicine) To examine with the instrument called a sound or sonde, or by auscultation or percussion.

Translations

Noun

sound (plural sounds)

1. A long, thin probe for sounding or dilating body cavities or canals such as the urethra; a sonde.

Translations

References

• sound at OneLook Dictionary Search
• sound in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• nodus, udons, undos

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English sound.

Noun

sound m (invariable)

1. (music) sound (distinctive style and sonority)

English

Etymology

From Latin s?nsibilis (“perceptible by the senses, having feeling, sensible”), from senti? (“to feel, perceive”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sen.s?.bl?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?n.s?.bl?/

Adjective

sensible (comparative more sensible, superlative most sensible or sensiblest)

1. (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.

2. Easily perceived; appreciable.
   • 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.
4. (archaic) Liable to external impression; easily affected; sensitive.

   a sensible thermometer
5. Of or pertaining to the senses; sensory.
6. (archaic) Cognizant; having the perception of something; aware of something.
   • , Book II, Chapter I

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

   • 1810, Thomas Green, Extracts from the diary of a lover of literature

     we are now sensible that it would have been absurd
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.

Usage notes

• "Sensible" describes the reasonable way in which a person may think about things or do things:

  It wouldn't be sensible to start all over again now.

It is not comparable to its cognates in certain languages (see below).

• "Sensitive" describes an emotional way in which a person may react to things:

  He has always been a sensitive child.

  I didn’t realize she was so sensitive about her work.

Related terms

• sense
• sensory
• sensual
• sensuous
• supersensible

Translations

Noun

sensible (plural sensibles)

1. (obsolete) Sensation; sensibility.
2. (obsolete) That which impresses itself on the senses; anything perceptible.
   • 1857, William Fleming, Vocabulary of Philosophyyy

     Aristotle distinguished sensibles into common and proper.

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

   • 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, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• sensible at OneLook Dictionary Search

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin s?nsibilis, attested from the 14th century.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /s?n?si.bl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /sen?si.ble/

Adjective

sensible (masculine and feminine plural sensibles)

1. sentient
2. sensitive

Derived terms

• sensiblement

Related terms

• insensible
• sensibilitat
• sentir

References

Further reading

• “sensible” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “sensible” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “sensible” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??.sibl/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin s?nsibilis.

Adjective

sensible (plural sensibles)

1. sensitive

Derived terms

• sensibilité
• sensiblement

Related terms

• sentir

Etymology 2

Ellipsis of note sensible.

Noun

sensible f (plural sensibles)

1. (music) leading tone

Further reading

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

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

sensible

1. inflection of sensibel:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin s?nsibilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sen?sible/, [s?n?si.??le]

Adjective

sensible (plural sensibles)

1. sensitive
2. sentient
3. responsive

Usage notes

• Sensible is a false friend, and does not mean reasonable in Spanish. Spanish equivalents are shown above, in the "Translations" section of the English entry sensible.

Antonyms

• insensible

Related terms

Further reading

• “sensible” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.