sensible

Etymology

From Latin sēnsibilis (“perceptible by the senses, having feeling, sensible”), from sentiō (“to feel, perceive”).

adj

1. Acting with or showing good sense; able to make good judgements based on reason, or reflecting such ability.
   They ask questions of someone who thinks he's got something sensible to say on some matter when actually he hasn't. 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 230b
2. Characterized more by usefulness, practicality, or comfort than by attractiveness, formality, or fashionableness, especially of clothing.
   I only wear high heels on formal occasions; otherwise, I prefer sensible shoes.
   Settle down, raise a family, join the PTA Buy some sensible shoes and a Chevrolet 1985, "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics and music), “Dare to Be Stupid”, in Dare to Be Stupid, performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic
   1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust (2001 Perennial Edition), page 8, They would walk, on fair evenings, around the village, and discuss the theory of crop rotation, and the weather, and other such sensible matters.
3. (especially formally) Able to be sensed by the senses or the psyche; able to be perceived.
   Air is sensible to the Touch by its Motion, and by its Resistance to Bodies moved in it. 1751, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies, page 1
   The sensible qualities of argentina promise no great virtue of this kind; for to the taste it discovers only a slight roughishness, from whence it may be presumed to be entitled to a place only among the milder corroborants. 1778, William Lewis, The New Dispensatory, page 91
   It has been vouchsafed, for example, to very few Christian believers to have had a sensible vision of their Saviour. 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Folio Society, published 2008, page 45
4. (archaic) Able to feel or perceive.
5. (archaic) Liable to external impression; easily affected; sensitive.
   a sensible thermometer
6. (archaic) Of or pertaining to the senses; sensory.
7. (archaic) Cognizant; having the perception of something; aware of something.
   , Book II, Chapter I He cannot think at any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it.
   we are now sensible that it would have been absurd 1810, Thomas Green, Extracts from the diary of a lover of literature

noun

1. (obsolete) Sensation; sensibility.
2. (obsolete) That which impresses itself on the senses; anything perceptible.
   1857, William Fleming, Vocabulary of Philosophyyy Aristotle distinguished sensibles into common and proper.
3. (obsolete) That which has sensibility; a sensitive being.