WordGarden.iosensitiveness
C2Pronunciation
UK
- /sˈɛnsɪtˌɪvnəs/
US
- /ˈsɛnsətɪvnəs/
Meanings
Noun
the tendency to be easily upset, hurt, or offended
understanding and responsiveness to other people's feelings or needs
unusual bodily or medical reactivity to touch, substances, or other stimuli
More meaningsFewer meanings
the ability of an instrument or system to detect or react to very small changes
Beyond the definition
Sensitiveness describes a strong tendency to feel things deeply or react quickly to them. A person with a lot of sensitiveness may be moved by beauty, hurt by harsh words, or troubled by small changes in tone, noise, or mood. It is often used for emotional reactions, but it can also describe a delicate subject or situation that needs careful handling.
The word often appears in writing about feelings, relationships, art, and polite social behavior. A novelist may show great sensitiveness to human pain, while a friend may be called too full of sensitiveness if even a small joke feels insulting. In many everyday cases, it suggests both depth of feeling and a tendency to be easily affected.
Sensitiveness is the quality of being easily affected, especially in feelings, perception, or response. Most often, it describes a person who reacts strongly to emotional experiences. Such a person may notice slight changes in another person's voice, feel hurt quickly, respond warmly to kindness, or be deeply touched by beauty, sadness, or tension. In this sense, the word suggests emotional depth, alertness, and sometimes vulnerability.
The word can also point to a tendency to react strongly to physical or social conditions. Someone may show sensitiveness to noise, criticism, embarrassment, or pressure. In these cases, the idea is not only that the person notices something, but that it has a strong effect on them. Because of that, the word sometimes carries a mildly negative tone, especially when it suggests being too easily upset or offended.
There is another common use as well: sensitiveness can describe how delicate a subject, question, or situation is. If a topic has great sensitiveness, it must be approached with care because it may cause discomfort, conflict, or strong feelings. This use is close to the idea of a matter being touchy or requiring tact.
In style, sensitiveness can sound slightly literary or old-fashioned, and in modern everyday English, sensitivity is often more common. Still, sensitiveness is fully understandable and is especially useful when the focus is on quick, deep, or delicate response. Across its uses, the central idea stays the same: a person or thing is affected strongly and often needs gentle understanding or careful treatment.
Examples
- 1
Workplace feedback
Her sensitiveness to criticism made her avoid speaking up in meetings.
- Patternsensitiveness to + source
being strongly affected by it
- 2
Sensory reaction
The doctor asked whether the child had any unusual sensitiveness to light or sound.
- 3
Counseling
What made him a good counselor was his sensitiveness to other people's moods.
See also
Forms and spellings
1 form open this card.
Main spelling
- sensitivenessnoun