Sense vs. Feeling — What's the Difference?
Edited by Tayyaba Rehman — By Fiza Rafique — Updated on November 2, 2023
Sense typically refers to physical perception or a logical understanding, while feeling is an emotional experience or intuition.
Difference Between Sense and Feeling
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Sense refers to the faculties by which the body perceives an external stimulus; it includes sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. Feeling, on the other hand, is an emotional state or reaction, often less tangible and more subjective than the physical act of sensing.
Sense can also imply a mental perception or awareness, such as having a sense of understanding a complex concept. In contrast, feeling is used to describe the subjective emotional experience that accompanies thoughts or perceptions, which is not necessarily based on reasoning or logic.
In the context of a discussion or argument, to make sense is to be coherent or logical. Conversely, having a feeling about something might lead one to a conclusion that is based more on intuition or a gut reaction rather than on clear, rational thought.
When one says they sense something, they could be referring to a physical detection or an intellectual recognition of a situation. Feeling, however, is often associated with a deeper emotional response, potentially connected to one's mood or personal experiences.
Lastly, sense can be used as a verb, meaning to detect something, whereas feeling is more commonly used as a noun to express an emotional state. For example, one might sense the tension in a room (detect it) but have a feeling of unease (emotional response) about the situation.
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Comparison Chart
Primary Function
Physical or intellectual perception
Emotional state or response
Usage as a Verb
To perceive or detect something
Less commonly used as a verb; to feel emotionally
Relation to Logic
Often associated with rationality
Typically associated with emotions, beyond logic
Nature
Objective and measurable (e.g., five senses)
Subjective and individual experience
Contextual Usage
"Makes sense" (logical understanding)
"Have a feeling" (intuitive understanding)
Compare with Definitions
Sense
Perception.
He lost his sense of taste after the illness.
Feeling
Emotion.
She expressed a deep feeling of joy.
Sense
Awareness.
They sense danger before it's visible.
Feeling
Sensation.
He had a numb feeling in his toes.
Sense
Purpose.
The rule makes sense for safety.
Feeling
Feeling was originally used to describe the physical sensation of touch through either experience or perception. The word is also used to describe other experiences, such as "a feeling of warmth" and of sentience in general.
Sense
A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world and responding to stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain receives signals from the senses, which continuously receive information from the environment, interprets these signals, and causes the body to respond, either chemically or physically.) Although traditionally around five human senses were known (namely sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing), it is now recognized that there are many more.
Feeling
An emotional state or reaction
A feeling of joy
Sense
A faculty by which the body perceives an external stimulus; one of the faculties of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch
The bear has a keen sense of smell which enables it to hunt at dusk
Feeling
An idea or belief, especially a vague or irrational one
He had the feeling that he was being watched
Sense
A feeling that something is the case
She had the sense of being a political outsider
You can improve your general health and sense of well-being
Feeling
The capacity to experience the sense of touch
A loss of feeling in the hands
Sense
A sane and realistic attitude to situations and problems
He earned respect by the good sense he showed at meetings
Feeling
A sensitivity to or intuitive understanding of
She says I have a feeling for medicine
Sense
A way in which an expression or a situation can be interpreted; a meaning
It is not clear which sense of the word ‘characters’ is intended in this passage
Feeling
Showing emotion or sensitivity
She was a feeling child
Sense
A property (e.g. direction of motion) distinguishing a pair of objects, quantities, effects, etc. which differ only in that each is the reverse of the other
The cord does not become straight, but forms a length of helix in the opposite sense
Feeling
The sense of touch
Lost feeling in a toe.
Sense
Perceive by a sense or senses
With the first frost, they could sense a change in the days
Feeling
A sensation experienced through this sense
Enjoyed the feeling of rain on my face.
Sense
(of a machine or similar device) detect
An optical fibre senses a current flowing in a conductor
Feeling
A physical sensation other than one experienced though touch
A feeling of warmth.
Sense
Any of the faculties by which stimuli from outside or inside the body are received and felt, as the faculties of hearing, sight, smell, touch, taste, and equilibrium.
Feeling
An emotion, such as joy or sorrow
A feeling of loss.
Sense
A perception or feeling produced by a stimulus; sensation
A sense of fatigue and hunger.
Feeling
Strong mental agitation or excitement involving the emotions
Eyes that showed deep feeling.
Sense
Senses The faculties of sensation as means of providing physical gratification and pleasure.
Feeling
An emotion of affection; a fondness
Does she have feelings for you?.
Sense
An intuitive or acquired perception or ability to estimate
A sense of diplomatic timing.
Feeling
The capacity to experience refined emotions; sensitivity; sensibility
A man of feeling.
Sense
A capacity to appreciate or understand
A keen sense of humor.
Feeling
Feelings Susceptibility to emotional response; sensibilities
The child's feelings are easily hurt.
Sense
A vague feeling or presentiment
A sense of impending doom.
Feeling
An awareness or impression
He had the feeling that he was being followed.
Sense
Recognition or perception either through the senses or through the intellect; consciousness
Has no sense of shame.
Feeling
An opinion based strongly on emotion; sentiment
Voters' feelings on tax reform.
Sense
Natural understanding or intelligence, especially in practical matters
The boy had sense and knew just what to do when he got lost.
Feeling
A general impression conveyed by a person, place, or thing
This office has the feeling of a fortress.
Sense
Often senses The normal ability to think or reason soundly
Have you taken leave of your senses?.
Feeling
The emotions thought to be conveyed or intended by a work of art
The painting's feeling of anguish.
Sense
Something sound or reasonable
There's no sense in waiting three hours.
Feeling
Appreciative regard or understanding
Has no feeling for propriety.
Sense
A meaning that is conveyed, as in speech or writing; signification
The sense of the criticism is that the proposal has certain risks.
Feeling
Intuitive awareness or aptitude; a feel
Has a feeling for language.
Sense
One of the meanings of a word or phrase
The word set has many senses.
Feeling
Easily moved emotionally; sympathetic
A feeling heart.
Sense
Judgment; consensus
Sounding out the sense of the electorate on capital punishment.
Feeling
Expressive of sensibility or emotion
A feeling glance.
Sense
Intellectual interpretation, as of the significance of an event or the conclusions reached by a group
I came away from the meeting with the sense that we had resolved all outstanding issues.
Feeling
Emotionally sensitive.
Despite the rough voice, the coach is surprisingly feeling.
Sense
To become aware of; perceive
Organisms able to sense their surroundings.
Feeling
Expressive of great sensibility; attended by, or evincing, sensibility.
He made a feeling representation of his wrongs.
Sense
To grasp; understand
Sensed that the financial situation would improve.
Feeling
Sensation, particularly through the skin.
The wool on my arm produced a strange feeling.
Sense
To detect automatically
Sense radioactivity.
Feeling
Emotion; impression.
The house gave me a feeling of dread.
Sense
(Genetics) Of or relating to the portion of the strand of double-stranded DNA that serves as a template for and is transcribed into RNA.
Feeling
Emotional state or well-being.
You really hurt my feelings when you said that.
Sense
Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.
Feeling
Emotional attraction or desire.
Many people still have feelings for their first love.
Sense
Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.
A sense of security
Feeling
Intuition.
He has no feeling for what he can say to somebody in such a fragile emotional condition.
I've got a funny feeling that this isn't going to work.
Sense
Sound practical or moral judgment.
It's common sense not to put metal objects in a microwave oven.
Feeling
An opinion, an attitude.
Sense
The meaning, reason, or value of something.
You don’t make any sense.
Feeling
Present participle of feel
Sense
Any particular meaning of a word, among its various meanings.
Word sense disambiguation
The true sense of words or phrases
Feeling
Possessing great sensibility; easily affected or moved; as, a feeling heart.
Sense
A natural appreciation or ability.
A keen musical sense
Feeling
Expressive of great sensibility; attended by, or evincing, sensibility; as, he made a feeling representation of his wrongs.
Sense
(pragmatics) The way that a referent is presented.
Feeling
The sense by which the mind, through certain nerves of the body, perceives external objects, or certain states of the body itself; that one of the five senses which resides in the general nerves of sensation distributed over the body, especially in its surface; the sense of touch; nervous sensibility to external objects.
Why was the sightTo such a tender ball as the eye confined, . . . And not, as feeling, through all parts diffused?
Sense
(semantics) A single conventional use of a word; one of the entries for a word in a dictionary.
The word set has various senses.
Feeling
An act or state of perception by the sense above described; an act of apprehending any object whatever; an act or state of apprehending the state of the soul itself; consciousness.
The apprehension of the goodGives but the greater feeling to the worse.
Sense
(mathematics) One of two opposite directions in which a vector (especially of motion) may point. See also polarity.
Feeling
The capacity of the soul for emotional states; a high degree of susceptibility to emotions or states of the sensibility not dependent on the body; as, a man of feeling; a man destitute of feeling.
Sense
(mathematics) One of two opposite directions of rotation, clockwise versus anti-clockwise.
Feeling
Any state or condition of emotion; the exercise of the capacity for emotion; any mental state whatever; as, a right or a wrong feeling in the heart; our angry or kindly feelings; a feeling of pride or of humility.
A fellow feeling makes one wondrous kind.
Tenderness for the feelings of others.
Sense
(biochemistry) referring to the strand of a nucleic acid that directly specifies the product.
Feeling
That quality of a work of art which embodies the mental emotion of the artist, and is calculated to affect similarly the spectator.
Sense
To use biological senses: to either see, hear, smell, taste, or feel.
Feeling
The experiencing of affective and emotional states;
She had a feeling of euphoria
He had terrible feelings of guilt
I disliked him and the feeling was mutual
Sense
To instinctively be aware.
She immediately sensed her disdain.
Feeling
A vague idea in which some confidence is placed;
His impression of her was favorable
What are your feelings about the crisis?
It strengthened my belief in his sincerity
I had a feeling that she was lying
Sense
To comprehend.
Feeling
The general atmosphere of a place or situation and the effect that it has on people;
The feel of the city excited him
A clergyman improved the tone of the meeting
It had the smell of treason
Sense
A faculty, possessed by animals, of perceiving external objects by means of impressions made upon certain organs (sensory or sense organs) of the body, or of perceiving changes in the condition of the body; as, the senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. See Muscular sense, under Muscular, and Temperature sense, under Temperature.
Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep.
What surmounts the reachOf human sense I shall delineate.
The traitor Sense recallsThe soaring soul from rest.
Feeling
A physical sensation that you experience;
He had a queasy feeling
I had a strange feeling in my leg
He lost all feeling in his arm
Sense
Perception by the sensory organs of the body; sensation; sensibility; feeling.
In a living creature, though never so great, the sense and the affects of any one part of the body instantly make a transcursion through the whole.
Feeling
The sensation produced by pressure receptors in the skin;
She likes the touch of silk on her skin
The surface had a greasy feeling
Sense
Perception through the intellect; apprehension; recognition; understanding; discernment; appreciation.
This Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover.
High disdain from sense of injured merit.
Feeling
An intuitive understanding of something;
He had a great feeling for music
Sense
Sound perception and reasoning; correct judgment; good mental capacity; understanding; also, that which is sound, true, or reasonable; rational meaning.
He raves; his words are looseAs heaps of sand, and scattering wide from sense.
Feeling
Impression.
I got the feeling he was unhappy.
Sense
That which is felt or is held as a sentiment, view, or opinion; judgment; notion; opinion.
I speak my private but impartial senseWith freedom.
The municipal council of the city had ceased to speak the sense of the citizens.
Feeling
Opinion.
Her feelings about the event were mixed.
Sense
Meaning; import; signification; as, the true sense of words or phrases; the sense of a remark.
So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense.
I think 't was in another sense.
Sense
Moral perception or appreciation.
Some are so hardened in wickedness as to have no sense of the most friendly offices.
Sense
One of two opposite directions in which a line, surface, or volume, may be supposed to be described by the motion of a point, line, or surface.
Sense
To perceive by the senses; to recognize.
Is he sure that objects are not otherwise sensed by others than they are by him?
Sense
A general conscious awareness;
A sense of security
A sense of happiness
A sense of danger
A sense of self
Sense
The meaning of a word or expression; the way in which a word or expression or situation can be interpreted;
The dictionary gave several senses for the word
In the best sense charity is really a duty
The signifier is linked to the signified
Sense
The faculty through which the external world is apprehended;
In the dark he had to depend on touch and on his senses of smell and hearing
Sense
Sound practical judgment;
I can't see the sense in doing it now
He hasn't got the sense God gave little green apples
Fortunately she had the good sense to run away
Sense
A natural appreciation or ability;
A keen musical sense
A good sense of timing
Sense
Perceive by a physical sensation, e.g., coming from the skin or muscles;
He felt the wind
She felt an object brushing her arm
He felt his flesh crawl
She felt the heat when she got out of the car
Sense
Detect some circumstance or entity automatically;
This robot can sense the presence of people in the room
Particle detectors sense ionization
Sense
Become aware of not through the senses but instinctively;
I sense his hostility
Sense
Comprehend;
I sensed the real meaning of his letter
Sense
Intelligence.
She has a good sense of the stock market.
Sense
Judgment.
Use your sense before acting.
Common Curiosities
How is feeling most often used?
Feeling is most often used to describe an emotional experience or sensation.
Can sense and feeling be used interchangeably?
They are not typically interchangeable as sense refers more to perception and cognition, while feeling pertains to emotion.
What is a common use of sense?
Sense commonly refers to the five physical faculties or a logical understanding.
What does 'hurt feelings' imply?
It implies emotional pain or distress.
Do people have a sense for moral decisions?
Yes, it's often referred to as a moral sense or conscience.
Are feelings always emotional?
Primarily, but the term can also refer to physical sensations.
Does sense relate to intelligence?
Yes, it can relate to intelligence, as in having common sense or a sense of something.
Is sense always physical?
No, sense can also refer to intellectual perception or awareness.
Can animals have feelings?
Yes, animals can experience emotions.
Do 'sense of achievement' and 'feeling proud' mean the same?
Not exactly; the former relates to a recognition of accomplishment, the latter is the emotional response to it.
How does one 'make sense' of information?
By organizing and understanding it logically.
Can feeling denote a hunch or intuition?
Yes, one can have a feeling or intuition about something.
Is 'sense of humor' emotional?
It's more intellectual, relating to the perception of humor.
Can a feeling be justified?
Feelings don't need justification as they are subjective experiences.
How does 'sense of community' function?
It describes a feeling of belonging and shared understanding among a group.
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Written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
Edited by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
