"in a sense" meaning in English

See in a sense in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Forms: in one sense [alternative]
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} in a sense, {{en-PP}} in a sense
  1. In one sense or interpretation, but not in all ways. Synonyms: after a fashion, in a way Translations (in one sense or interpretation): iusence (Esperanto)
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "in one sense",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "in a sense",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "in a sense",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English positive polarity items",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Esperanto translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              30,
              38
            ],
            [
              49,
              57
            ],
            [
              92,
              100
            ],
            [
              191,
              199
            ],
            [
              272,
              282
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1889, H[enry] Clay Trumbull, “Making Drudgery Divine”, in Duty-knowing and Duty-doing, Philadelphia, Pa.: John D. Wattles, →OCLC, page 133:",
          "text": "A large part of duty-doing is drudgery. There is drudgery in every department of life's workdrudgery that is indispensable to success in that work. […] But there is such a thing as ennobling drudgery, as making and counting it an essential part of that which is noble and–in a sense–divine.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              10
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1989, Ronald K. Siegel, Intoxication: The Universal Drive for Mind-Altering Substances, Park Street Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 192:",
          "text": "In a sense, the editorial cartoons were correct when they suggested that an exaltation of larks can fly under the influence into an aspect of vulturous behavior.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              10
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2001, Dennis O'Neil, The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics:",
          "text": "In a sense, Superman's romance with Lois Lane was a subplot and [...]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              41,
              51
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2011, Thomas W. Dombroski, How America Was Financed, page xi:",
          "text": "This is not a historical novel yet it is in a sense historical and contained within this book is a true story of how America was financed.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In one sense or interpretation, but not in all ways."
      ],
      "id": "en-in_a_sense-en-prep_phrase-zT28u0Ug",
      "links": [
        [
          "sense",
          "sense#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "interpretation",
          "interpretation"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "after a fashion"
        },
        {
          "word": "in a way"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "in one sense or interpretation",
          "word": "iusence"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "in a sense"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "in one sense",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "in a sense",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "in a sense",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English positive polarity items",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Terms with Esperanto translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              30,
              38
            ],
            [
              49,
              57
            ],
            [
              92,
              100
            ],
            [
              191,
              199
            ],
            [
              272,
              282
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1889, H[enry] Clay Trumbull, “Making Drudgery Divine”, in Duty-knowing and Duty-doing, Philadelphia, Pa.: John D. Wattles, →OCLC, page 133:",
          "text": "A large part of duty-doing is drudgery. There is drudgery in every department of life's workdrudgery that is indispensable to success in that work. […] But there is such a thing as ennobling drudgery, as making and counting it an essential part of that which is noble and–in a sense–divine.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              10
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1989, Ronald K. Siegel, Intoxication: The Universal Drive for Mind-Altering Substances, Park Street Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 192:",
          "text": "In a sense, the editorial cartoons were correct when they suggested that an exaltation of larks can fly under the influence into an aspect of vulturous behavior.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              10
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2001, Dennis O'Neil, The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics:",
          "text": "In a sense, Superman's romance with Lois Lane was a subplot and [...]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              41,
              51
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2011, Thomas W. Dombroski, How America Was Financed, page xi:",
          "text": "This is not a historical novel yet it is in a sense historical and contained within this book is a true story of how America was financed.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In one sense or interpretation, but not in all ways."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sense",
          "sense#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "interpretation",
          "interpretation"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "after a fashion"
        },
        {
          "word": "in a way"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "in one sense or interpretation",
      "word": "iusence"
    }
  ],
  "word": "in a sense"
}

Download raw JSONL data for in a sense meaning in English (2.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (58c391d and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.