sensitive

[sen·si·tive]

Sensitive describes something or someone who reacts quickly and strongly. It's often something to protect like baby skin, government documents, or a fragile ecosystem.

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Having sense of feeling; possessing or exhibiting the capacity of receiving impressions from external objects; as, a sensitive soul.

Adjective S.
used officially of classified information or matters affecting national security

Adjective S.
hurting; "the tender spot on his jaw"

Adjective
able to feel or perceive; "even amoeba are sensible creatures"; "the more sensible p{ enveloping(a), shrouding(a), concealing,& (concealing by enclosing or wrapping as if in something that is not solid; "the enveloping darkness"; "hills concealed by shrou

Adjective
responsive to physical stimuli; "a mimosa''s leaves are sensitive to touch"; "a sensitive voltmeter"; "sensitive skin"; "sensitive to light"

Adjective
having acute mental or emotional sensibility; "sensitive to the local community and its needs"

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a.
Having sense of feeling; possessing or exhibiting the capacity of receiving impressions from external objects; as, a sensitive soul.

a.
Having quick and acute sensibility, either to the action of external objects, or to impressions upon the mind and feelings; highly susceptible; easily and acutely affected.

a.
Having a capacity of being easily affected or moved; as, a sensitive thermometer; sensitive scales.

a.
Readily affected or changed by certain appropriate agents; as, silver chloride or bromide, when in contact with certain organic substances, is extremely sensitive to actinic rays.

a.
Serving to affect the sense; sensible.

a.
Of or pertaining to sensation; depending on sensation; as, sensitive motions; sensitive muscular motions excited by irritation.


Sensitive

Sen"si*tive , a. [F. sensitif. See Sense.] 1. Having sense of feeling; possessing or exhibiting the capacity of receiving impressions from external objects; as, a sensitive soul. 2. Having quick and acute sensibility, either to the action of external objects, or to impressions upon the mind and feelings; highly susceptible; easily and acutely affected.
She was too sensitive to abuse and calumny.
3. (a) (Mech.) Having a capacity of being easily affected or moved; as, a sensitive thermometer; sensitive scales. (b) (Chem. & Photog.) Readily affected or changed by certain appropriate agents; as, silver chloride or bromide, when in contact with certain organic substances, is extremely sensitive to actinic rays. 4. Serving to affect the sense; sensible. [R.]
A sensitive love of some sensitive objects.
5. Of or pertaining to sensation; depending on sensation; as, sensitive motions; sensitive muscular motions excited by irritation. E. Darwin. Sensitive fern (Bot.), an American fern (Onoclea sensibilis), the leaves of which, when plucked, show a slight tendency to fold together. -- Sensitive flame (Physics), a gas flame so arranged that under a suitable adjustment of pressure it is exceedingly sensitive to sounds, being caused to roar, flare, or become suddenly shortened or extinguished, by slight sounds of the proper pitch. -- Sensitive joint vetch (Bot.), an annual leguminous herb ('92schynomene hispida), with sensitive foliage. -- Sensitive paper, paper prepared for photographic purpose by being rendered sensitive to the effect of light. -- Sensitive plant. (Bot.) (a) A leguminous plant (Mimosa pudica, or M. sensitiva, and other allied species), the leaves of which close at the slightest touch. (b) Any plant showing motions after irritation, as the sensitive brier (Schrankia) of the Southern States, two common American species of Cassia (C. nictitans, and C. Cham'91crista), a kind of sorrel (Oxalis sensitiva), etc.

Sensitivity

Sen`si*tiv"i*ty , n. The quality or state of being sensitive; -- used chiefly in science and the arts; as, the sensitivity of iodized silver.
Sensitivity and emotivity have also been used as the scientific term for the capacity of feeling.

Having sense of feeling; possessing or exhibiting the capacity of receiving impressions from external objects; as, a sensitive soul.

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Usage Examples

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

I am a sensitive writer, actor and director. Talking business disgusts me. If you want to talk business, call my disgusting personal manager.

I think all jocks have a sensitive side. It's just, will they show it to anybody? Will they let their guard down and stop being tough and the cool jock guy around their friends, or just relax? I don't know if it's best to say opening up, but just relax and really say what you're actually thinking, and not what you think people want to hear.

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.

I am sensitive to the value of faith and religion and spirituality in people's lives because I'm a journalist.

I am very honored for all the distinctions and accolades, but what I am most sensitive to is my clientele and the fact they are pleased with my food and my restaurants.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument. Isaac Stern takes good care of his violin. What if everybody jumped on his violin?

According to the Privacy Rights Center, up to 10 million Americans are victims of ID theft each year. They have a right to be notified when their most sensitive health data is stolen.

A day spent praising the earth and lamenting man's pollutionist history makes you feel like a superior, sensitive soul.

Misspelled Form

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Other Usage Examples

Humor is very very risky, particularly for a candidate, unless he's been in so long that it just doesn't matter, and he's not running for president. But it's just that people are so sensitive and so touchy, and you're just going to upset somebody without ever realizing it.

And I understand that, I testified in closed hearings over eight years because there are intelligence matters, there are sensitive matters that should not be held in a public hearing.

I am for gay marriage. Or same-sex marriage. I don't want to say it the wrong way. I think people are sensitive to it. I have been painted as being this right-wing zealot on choice. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Beware of men who cry. It's true that men who cry are sensitive to and in touch with feelings, but the only feelings they tend to be sensitive to and in touch with are their own.

A politics that is not sensitive to the concerns and circumstances of people's lives, a politics that does not speak to and include people, is an intellectually arrogant politics that deserves to fail.

Bill Clinton sitting on Air Force One getting his hair cut while people around the country cooled their heels and waited for him, became a metaphor for a populist president who had gotten drunk with the perks of his own power and was sort of, you know, not sensitive to what people wanted.

I wanted to show how a man of sensitive and noble character, born for religion, comes to throw off the orthodoxies of his day and moment, and to go out into the wilderness where all is experiment, and spiritual life begins again.

American officials have bent over backwards to show how sensitive they are to Muslim culture. It didn't seem very effective. They seem to be worried about winning the respect of other people.

At the same, we need to remain sensitive to the reality that we are still an African society in which the majority of the people and communities live under severe deprivations and afflictions that are no fault of theirs.

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