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You are here: Home / Language / What Does the Term “Sixth Sense” Mean and Where Did the Expression Come From?

What Does the Term “Sixth Sense” Mean and Where Did the Expression Come From?

July 22, 2020 by Karen Hill

Humans are credited with five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

So someone with a “sixth sense” is gifted with an unexplained perception outside of the common five.

The expression sixth sense comes from a study of blind people reported in 1903 in which it was found that, although deprived of sight, some of the subjects could perceive or sense certain objects in a room in a way that defied scientific understanding.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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