sense

Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compliers are interested in. For example, the word “dog” is given the definition of “a domesticated canine mammal, occuring in many breeds that show a great variety in size and form.” this does not refer to any particular dog that exists in the real world, but applies too any animal that meets the features described in the definition. So this is the sense of the word “dog.”