make sense

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

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.

   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, 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.

   Can you make sense of her handwriting?

Synonyms

• (be coherent or reasonable): add up
• (decipher): make head or tail of

Translations

be coherent

• Asturian: tener sentíu
• Bulgarian: има смисъл (ima smisǎl)
• Catalan: tenir sentit, fer sentit
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 有意義／有意义, 有意义 (yǒu yìyì), 有道理 (zh) (yǒu dàolǐ)

• Czech: dávat smysl
• Danish: give mening
• Dutch: kloppen (nl), zinvol (nl) zijn, betekenisvol (nl) zijn
• Esperanto: havi sencon
• Finnish: olla järkeä
• French: avoir du sens (fr), tenir debout (fr) (France, familiar), faire sens (fr)
• German: Sinn ergeben, sinnvoll sein, Sinn geben, Sinn machen
• Hungarian: logikus (hu), értelmes (hu), érthető (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: ciall a bheith le
• Italian: avere senso
• Japanese: 意味する (ja) (いみする, imi-surú), 意味が通る (ja) (いみがとおる, imi-ga tōru)
• Norwegian: gi mening
• Persian: قابل فهم (fa)
• Portuguese: fazer sentido
• Romanian: a avea sens
• Russian: име́ть смысл (imétʹ smysl), быть поня́тным (bytʹ ponjátnym), поня́тно (ru) (ponjátno) (adverb)
• Scottish Gaelic: dèan tuigse
• Spanish: tener sentido (es), ser lógico, encajar (es), cuadrar (es)
• Swedish: vara begriplig, gå ihop, gå i hop, låta vettig, vara vettig, kännas vettig
• Turkish: mantıklı (tr)
• Welsh: gwneud synnwyr

decipher, understand

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 理解 (zh) (lǐjiě), 懂得 (zh) (dǒngde)

• Dutch: ontcijferen (nl), verstaan (nl), snappen (nl)
• Finnish: saada selvää (fi)
• German: schlau werden aus, verstehen (de), begreifen (de)
• Hungarian: kihámoz (hu)
• Irish: ciall a bhaint as
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: dare un senso, capire (it), decifrare (it)
• Japanese: 納得する (なっとくする, nattoku-surú)
• Portuguese: entender (pt)
• Russian: понима́ть (ru) (ponimátʹ), разбира́ть (ru) (razbirátʹ)
• Spanish: entender (es)
• Swedish: begripa (sv), förstå (sv), tyda (sv), få ut något av
• Turkish: anlaşılabilir