Word study
Sense
4 Hebrew and 10 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: sense, senses, sensed. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “sense” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- לֵב lêbinner man, mind, will, hearttranslated this way 2 times of its 526 uses · Strong’s H3820Noun · Translated: heart 326, hearts 78, mind 30, judgment 11Full study and all 495 verses →
1 Kings 8:47 and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’
- לֵבָב lêbâbinner man, mind, will, hearttranslated this way 1 time of its 234 uses · Strong’s H3824Noun · Translated: heart 145, hearts 47, mind 9, conscience 2Full study and all 214 verses →
2 Chronicles 6:37 and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’
- בִּין bîndiscerntranslated this way 1 time of its 166 uses · Strong’s H995Verb · Translated: understand 27, discerning 16, understanding 12, consider 10Full study and all 160 verses →
Job 18:2 “How long until you end these speeches? Show some sense, and then we can talk.
- בֶּטַח beṭachsecuritytranslated this way 1 time of its 39 uses · Strong’s H983Noun · Translated: securely 21, safety 8, unsuspecting 2, secure 2Full study and all 38 verses →
Job 24:23 He gives them a sense of security, but His eyes are on their ways.
Greek words (New Testament)
- φόβος phóbosfear, terror, reverencetranslated this way 2 times of its 45 uses · Strong’s G5401Noun · Translated: fear 29, respect 5, awe 2, sense of awe 2Full study and all 42 verses →
Luke 7:16 A sense of awe swept over all of them, and they glorified God. “A great prophet has appeared among us!” they said. “God has visited His people!”
Acts 2:43 A sense of awe came over everyone, and the apostles performed many wonders and signs.
- ἑαυτοῦ heautoûhimself, herself, itselftranslated this way 1 time of its 269 uses · Strong’s G1438Reflexive Pronoun · Translated: himself 66, yourselves 28, themselves 26, his 17Full study and all 246 verses →
Luke 15:17 Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food, but here I am, starving to death!
- ἀνανήφω ananḗphōI become sober again, recover sound sensetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G366Verb · Translated: come to their senses 1Full study and its 1 verse →
2 Timothy 2:26 Then they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who has taken them captive to his will.
- αἰσθητήριον aisthētḗrionperceptive facultytranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G145Noun · Translated: senses 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.
- ἀκοή akoḗhearing, faculty of hearing, eartranslated this way 1 time of its 23 uses · Strong’s G189Noun · Translated: hearing 6, ears 4, heard 3, rumors 2Full study and all 21 verses →
1 Corinthians 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
- ὄσφρησις ósphrēsisthe sense of smelltranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G3750Noun · Translated: sense of smell 1Full study and its 1 verse →
1 Corinthians 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
- ἀπαλγέω apalgéōI am past feeling, cease to care, become calloustranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G524Verb · Translated: lost all sense of shame 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Ephesians 4:19 Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more.
- παραβολή parabolḗa parable, comparisontranslated this way 1 time of its 50 uses · Strong’s G3850Noun · Translated: parable 30, parables 15, lesson 2, proverb 1Full study and all 48 verses →
Hebrews 11:19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and in a sense, he did receive Isaac back from death.
- γινώσκω ginṓskōI come to know, learn, realizetranslated this way 1 time of its 220 uses · Strong’s G1097Verb · Translated: know 95, understand 19, known 15, knew 12Full study and all 205 verses →
Mark 5:29 Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
- ὑπονοέω hyponoéōI conjecture, supposetranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s G5282Verb · Translated: suppose 1, expected 1, sensed 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Acts 27:27 On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea. About midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.