Meaning-Making and Sensemaking
*last updated on January 9, 2026
The relationship between sensemaking and meaning-making depends on the tradition you are drawing from. Different fields use these words in overlapping but not identical ways, and that can make your writing look inconsistent even when your underlying idea is consistent.
1) Meaning-making (broad sense): constructing meanings
In the sense I usually mean (influenced by symbolic interactionism), meaning-making is the basic human process of constructing meanings through language, symbols, memory, culture, and interaction. Meanings are not simply “out there” in objects or events; they emerge and change as people interpret and negotiate them in social life.
In this broad sense, meaning-making includes things like:
2) Meaning-making (narrower sense): finding personal significance after disruption
In clinical psychology, health psychology, and grief/stress research, meaning-making is often discussed more narrowly: as efforts to make sense of and integrate a stressful event and restore or revise one’s broader sense of meaning (e.g., beliefs, goals, identity, life story). This literature commonly distinguishes between broad “global meaning” and “situational meaning,” and it treats meaning-making as part of adjustment to major stressors.
In this narrower use, the questions tend to sound like:
3) Where sensemaking fits
Sensemaking is widely used to spotlight the work of interpretation when a situation is unclear, changing, or ambiguous—and when people need an account that is articulated enough to coordinate action. A common formulation is that sensemaking turns ongoing complexity into a “situation” that can be put into words and used as a springboard for action.
So, depending on how “meaning-making” is defined, two relationships are possible:
4) My usage (for consistency across entries)
In this project, I use meaning-making primarily in the broad sense: the human process of constructing meanings through symbols and interaction. I use sensemaking for moments when that process becomes especially noticeable—when meanings are in question, competing, or breaking down, and we work to restore a coherent understanding that can guide action.
Practical shortcut
About this project: Start page
1) Meaning-making (broad sense): constructing meanings
In the sense I usually mean (influenced by symbolic interactionism), meaning-making is the basic human process of constructing meanings through language, symbols, memory, culture, and interaction. Meanings are not simply “out there” in objects or events; they emerge and change as people interpret and negotiate them in social life.
In this broad sense, meaning-making includes things like:
- naming and categorizing (“this counts as X”)
- interpreting intentions (“they meant Y”)
- forming identity-relevant meanings (“this says something about me/us”)
- building shared realities (“in our group, this means Z”)
2) Meaning-making (narrower sense): finding personal significance after disruption
In clinical psychology, health psychology, and grief/stress research, meaning-making is often discussed more narrowly: as efforts to make sense of and integrate a stressful event and restore or revise one’s broader sense of meaning (e.g., beliefs, goals, identity, life story). This literature commonly distinguishes between broad “global meaning” and “situational meaning,” and it treats meaning-making as part of adjustment to major stressors.
In this narrower use, the questions tend to sound like:
- “Why did this happen?” / “How do I understand it?”
- “What does it mean for my life now?”
- “How does it change my identity, priorities, or future?”
3) Where sensemaking fits
Sensemaking is widely used to spotlight the work of interpretation when a situation is unclear, changing, or ambiguous—and when people need an account that is articulated enough to coordinate action. A common formulation is that sensemaking turns ongoing complexity into a “situation” that can be put into words and used as a springboard for action.
So, depending on how “meaning-making” is defined, two relationships are possible:
- If meaning-making is the broad symbolic-interactionist process of constructing meanings, then sensemaking can be treated as a close cousin or a subset—meaning-making that becomes especially visible under uncertainty.
- If meaning-making is used in the narrower clinical/stress sense (personal significance and integration after disruption), then sensemaking and meaning-making are more distinct: sensemaking emphasizes “what’s going on and what do we do,” while meaning-making emphasizes integration into one’s broader life meanings.
4) My usage (for consistency across entries)
In this project, I use meaning-making primarily in the broad sense: the human process of constructing meanings through symbols and interaction. I use sensemaking for moments when that process becomes especially noticeable—when meanings are in question, competing, or breaking down, and we work to restore a coherent understanding that can guide action.
Practical shortcut
- Sensemaking: “What’s going on here?” (especially under uncertainty)
- Meaning-making (my default): “How do we construct what this is?”
- Meaning-making (narrow clinical use): “How does this fit into (or change) my larger life meanings?”
About this project: Start page
