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💖 Understanding feelings 🔬 Detecting small changes 🤲 Feeling physical touch 🦠 Easily harmed 🔐 Need for protection
sensitivity

sensitivity

9 4.1
How easily a living thing gets harmed or infected
  • noun
  • /ˌsɛnsɪˈtɪvɪti/
  • Specialized
translation icon : susceptibilidad
  • Patients with obstructive sleep apnoea have increased sensitivity to anaesthetic agents, sedative drugs, and opiates.
  • sensitivity and specificity
  • sensitivity tests
  • culture and sensitivity

Now, it may just be that I have a particular sensitivity to nuts.

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Examples

  • For skin exposure, certain biologic and genetic factors can increase sensitivity to UVR.

    Academic text (1998)

  • People with a higher sensitivity to allergens may need to take extra precautions during pollen season.

  • There's a sensitivity to the natural environment.

    Time to Choose (2015)

  • Because of small numbers, we did not calculate the sensitivity of any tests for the low-risk group.

    Academic text (1992)

  • The results generally support the hypothesis that women exhibit greater sensitivity to CSR than men.

    Academic text (2013)

  • Skin rash, for example, may occur because of allergic sensitivity to latex.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Hearing family stories deepens children's understandings and sensitivity to others, especially those whose family histories differ from their own.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Children often display increased sensitivity to medications compared to adults, requiring careful dosage adjustments.

  • His sensitivity to certain foods makes it important for him to always read ingredient labels before eating.

Synonyms

predisposition
vssensitivity
  • Specialized
14 7.2

A greater chance of getting a disease because of genes or life conditions

is an immediate degree of being harmed or infected, not just long term risk
susceptibility
vssensitivity
11 7.1

A state of being easily affected or harmed by something

is specific to being harmed or infected by pathogens or substances
chemosensitivity
vssensitivity
  • Specialized
8.4

How easily drugs affect cells or parts of the body

is about being harmed or infected by pathogens or other substances not only chemicals
radiosensitivity
vssensitivity
  • Specialized
8.9

How easily radiation damages cells, tissues, or organisms

is about being harmed or infected by pathogens or other substances not energy

Antonyms

resistance
  • Specialized
54 4.1

A living thing's ability to survive disease or drugs

How Susceptible

sensitivity
  • Specialized
9 4.1
resistance
  • Specialized
54 4.1

Surface Forms

sensitivity singular
sensitivities plural

Morphology

sensitivity = sensitive (transparent) = sensitive + ity

Nominalization of the adjective 'sensitive' used in medical/biological contexts to indicate susceptibility.

Etymology

Sensitivity comes from the root sens-, from the Latin sentire meaning 'to feel'. Think of someone with 'sensitive' skin that reacts easily, so in medicine sensitivity is how easily an organism or cell is affected by a germ or substance.