Sensitivity

How to spell sensitivity

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce sensitivity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sensitivity mean?

1. nounThe quality of being aware of and responsive to the feelings, reactions, or needs of others.
2. nounThe degree to which a body, substance, or instrument responds to a stimulus such as light, touch, or chemicals.

Sensitivity in a sentence

• The manager handled the layoffs with real sensitivity toward the affected staff.

• The dentist noted increased sensitivity in the lower molars after the filling.

• Discussing the will required some sensitivity given how recent the loss was.

• The camera's high sensitivity to light let it capture clear photos at dusk.

Where does sensitivity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb sentire, meaning 'to feel' or 'to perceive', the same root that gives us 'sense', 'sentiment', and 'sentinel'. From sentire came the medieval Latin sensitivus, describing something capable of feeling or perceiving. English took 'sensitive' through Old French in the late 1300s, originally in a technical sense relating to the faculties of perception. The abstract noun 'sensitivity' was then built on top of it with the suffix -ity, which turns an adjective into a quality or state, and it gained wide currency from the 1600s onward. Over time the meaning broadened from raw physical perception to include emotional tact and, in science, the precise responsiveness of an instrument. The tricky part for spellers is the unstressed middle, where the -siti- can blur, plus remembering the single 's' sounds that punctuate the word.

How the word is built

• sens- (from sentire: to feel/perceive)
• -itiv- (tending to)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix)