make sense

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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Verb[edit]

make sense (third-person singular simple present makes sense, present participle making sense, simple past and past participle made sense)

  1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To be sensible, coherent, reasonable.
    Synonym: add up
    The thing doesn’t make sense to me.
    Somehow the combination didn’t make sense, but Cranston took it at face value, whatever that was worth.
    • 1980, ABBA (lyrics and music), “The Winner Takes It All”:
      I was in your arms
      Thinking I belonged there
      I figured it made sense
      Building me a fence
  2. (intransitive, idiomatic, with of) To decipher or understand.
    Synonym: make head or tail of
    Can you make sense of her handwriting?
  3. (informal) Used to express interest or desire in something; to be pleasing or beneficial; to work, be operative, or be advantageous to.
    Maybe we should take a break. I mean, our relationship just isn't making much sense anymore.
  4. (generally negated, bodybuilding slang) To be in the realm of the ordinary, to be not particularly developed.
    Antonyms: ridiculous, absurd; see also Thesaurus:strapping
    If you want to grow spinal erectors that don’t make sense, you have to do a lot of bent-over compound lifts.

Descendants[edit]

  • Dutch: sense maken
  • Icelandic: meika sens
  • Swedish: mejka sense

Translations[edit]