- (of people and their behaviour) able to make good judgements based on reason and experience rather than emotion; practical
- She's a sensible sort of person.
- I think that's a very sensible idea.
- I think the sensible thing would be to take a taxi home.
- Say something sensible.
- a sensible approach/decision/solution/option
- Diplomacy is the only sensible way to resolve this dispute.
- This is an eminently sensible approach.
- sensible about something We have to be sensible about this.
- We are just asking people to be sensible about the amount of water they use.
- it is sensible to do something It is sensible to have contingency plans in place.
- it is sensible for somebody to do something It would be sensible for the government to take precautionary measures.
Which Word? sensible / sensitivesensible / sensitiveSensible and sensitive are connected with two different meanings of sense.- Sensible refers to your ability to make good judgements:
- She gave me some very sensible advice.
- It wasn't very sensible to eat all that chocolate at once, was it?
- Sensitive refers to how easily you react to things, how easily you are offended or upset, or how much you are aware of and able to understand other people and their feelings:
- a soap for sensitive skin
- This movie may upset a sensitive child.
- a sensitive and caring man
Extra ExamplesTopics Personal qualitiesb1- Ben's usually pretty sensible.
- I wish you'd be sensible for once!
- She was a sensible little girl, and would never get into a car with a stranger.
- That wasn't a very sensible thing to do!
- In the state I was in, this seemed a perfectly sensible remark.
- That advice sounds sensible enough.
- This approach seems very sensible to me.
- Choose a sensible diet and stick to it.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- appear
- be
- seem
- …
- extremely
- fairly
- very
- …
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- (of clothes, etc.) useful rather than fashionable
- sensible shoes
- (formal or literary) aware of something
- I am sensible of the fact that mathematics is not a popular subject.
More Like This Words that look like opposites, but aren’tWords that look like opposites, but aren’t
Word Originlate Middle English (also in the sense ‘perceptible by the senses’): from Old French, or from Latin sensibilis, from sensus ‘faculty of feeling, thought, meaning’, from sentire ‘feel’.
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