sensitivity

/ˈsɛnsəˌtɪvədi/

/sɛnsɪˈtɪvɪti/

Other forms: sensitivities

Sensitivity has many shades of meaning but most relate to your response to your environment — either physical or emotional. Sensitivity to cold means you’re quick to notice the slightest chill — in the air or in another person’s actions.

A sensitivity to pollen means you’re sneezing any time it’s in the air — you just always seem to react to it. It’s the same with emotions — sensitivity means you pick up on the feelings of others. If you have great sensitivity to your classmates, then you’re aware of their needs and behave in a way that makes them feel good. If you introduce a new policy with sensitivity, that means you consider how others will react to it.

Definitions of sensitivity

1. noun

   sensitivity to emotional feelings (of self and others)
   synonyms: sensitiveness

   types:

   oversensitiveness

   sensitivity leading to easy irritation or upset

   sensibility

   refined sensitivity to pleasurable or painful impressions

   feelings

   emotional or moral sensitivity (especially in relation to personal principles or dignity)

   insight, perceptiveness, perceptivity

   a feeling of understanding

   sensuousness

   a sensuous feeling

   type of:

   feeling

   the experiencing of affective and emotional states
2. noun

   the ability to respond to affective changes in your interpersonal environment
   synonyms: sensitiveness

   antonyms:

   insensitivity

   the inability to respond to affective changes in your interpersonal environment

   types:

   antenna, feeler

   sensitivity similar to that of a receptor organ

   defensiveness

   excessive sensitivity to criticism

   perceptiveness

   the quality of insight and sympathetic understanding

   bunker mentality

   defensiveness resulting from repeated attacks

   type of:

   ability

   the quality of being able to perform; a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment
3. noun

   (physiology) responsiveness to external stimuli; the faculty of sensation
   “sensitivity to pain”

   synonyms: sensibility, sensitiveness

   types:

   acuteness

   a sensitivity that is keen and highly developed

   hypersensitivity

   extreme sensitivity

   reactivity, responsiveness

   responsive to stimulation

   exteroception

   sensitivity to stimuli originating outside of the body

   interoception

   sensitivity to stimuli originating inside of the body

   photosensitivity, radiosensitivity

   sensitivity to the action of radiant energy

   excitability, irritability

   excessive sensitivity of an organ or body part

   sight, vision, visual modality, visual sense

   the ability to see; the visual faculty

   cutaneous senses, sense of touch, skin senses, touch, touch modality

   the faculty by which external objects or forces are perceived through contact with the body (especially the hands)

   audition, auditory modality, auditory sense, hearing, sense of hearing

   the ability to hear; the auditory faculty

   gustation, gustatory modality, sense of taste, taste

   the faculty of distinguishing sweet, sour, bitter, and salty properties in the mouth

   olfaction, olfactory modality, sense of smell, smell

   the faculty that enables us to distinguish scents

   proprioception

   the ability to sense the position and location and orientation and movement of the body and its parts

   somaesthesia, somaesthesis, somataesthesis, somatesthesia, somatic sense, somatic sensory system, somatosensory system, somesthesia, somesthesis

   the faculty of bodily perception; sensory systems associated with the body; includes skin senses and proprioception and the internal organs

   type of:

   sensation, sense, sensory faculty, sentience, sentiency

   the faculty through which the external world is apprehended
4. noun

   the ability to respond to physical stimuli or to register small physical amounts or differences
   “a galvanometer of extreme sensitivity”

   synonyms: sensitiveness

   types:

   frequency response

   (electronics) a curve representing the output-to-input ratio of a transducer as a function of frequency

   type of:

   physical property

   any property used to characterize matter and energy and their interactions
5. noun

   susceptibility to a pathogen
   synonyms: predisposition

   types:

   habitus

   person's predisposition to be affected by something (as a disease)

   sensitisation, sensitization

   the state of being sensitive (as to an antigen)

   hypersensitivity

   pathological sensitivity

   diathesis

   constitutional predisposition to a particular disease or abnormality

   irritation

   (pathology) abnormal sensitivity to stimulation

   cryaesthesia, cryesthesia

   hypersensitivity to cold

   hypersensitivity reaction

   an inappropriate and excessive reaction to an allergen (as pollen or dust or animal hair or certain foods); severity ranges from mild allergy to severe systemic reactions leading to anaphylactic shock

   intolerance

   inability to properly absorb or digest a drug, food, or other substance

   type of:

   susceptibility, susceptibleness

   the state of being susceptible; easily affected