# sensitive

Pronunciation: say "SEN-si-tiv" /ˈsɛn.sɪt.ɪv/

## Adjective

1. Easily offended, upset, or hurt, especially by criticism or remarks taken personally.
   - Simple: Easily hurt or upset by what other people say or do.
   - _He's sensitive about his weight, so choose your words carefully._
   - _After the divorce, she was sensitive to any mention of her ex-husband._
2. Meant to be concealed or kept secret rather than openly shared.
   - Simple: Meant to be kept secret and not shared with everyone.
   - _The leaked files contained sensitive financial data about thousands of customers._
   - _Employees must store sensitive documents in locked cabinets overnight._
3. Aware of the feelings of others and careful not to offend or upset them.
   - Simple: Careful about other people's feelings and trying not to hurt them.
   - _He was sensitive to the family's grief and chose his words carefully._
   - _Her sensitive handling of the layoffs earned her the staff's respect._
4. Accurate; able to register even small changes in the property being measured.
   - Simple: Able to notice or measure very small changes.
   - _Seismographs are sensitive enough to record tremors on the far side of the planet._
   - _The new test is sensitive to even trace amounts of the virus._
5. Capable of offending, upsetting, or hurting the people who hear or discuss it.
   - Simple: Likely to upset or offend people, so it needs to be talked about with care.
   - _Immigration remains a sensitive issue that candidates approach with caution._
   - _The documentary deals with sensitive material, including footage of the disaster's victims._
6. Important and intricate, requiring great delicacy in how it is handled.
   - Simple: Very important and tricky, needing great care so nothing goes wrong.
   - _Negotiations have reached a sensitive stage where any leak could derail the agreement._
   - _Repairing the manuscript was sensitive work that demanded steady hands and patience._
7. Responsive to stimuli; reacting readily to influences such as light, touch, or temperature.
   - Simple: Quick to react to things like light, sound, touch, or heat.
   - _Fingertips are packed with nerve endings, making them sensitive to the lightest touch._
   - _Photographic film is sensitive to light and must be loaded in total darkness._
8. Capable of sensory perception, or connected with the senses.
   - Simple: Able to feel things through the senses, like touch or sight.
   - _Early naturalists separated plants from sensitive creatures capable of feeling their surroundings._
   - _Even simple sensitive organisms pull away from things that harm them._

## Noun

9. A person with a paranormal sensitivity to presences or forces that most people cannot perceive.
   - Simple: A person who can sense things, like spirits, that most people cannot.
   - _The investigators brought a sensitive to the manor to see whether she could feel anything unusual._
   - _Local sensitives claimed the battlefield still echoed with the soldiers' fear._

## Adjective

10. Endowed with paranormal powers that a mesmerist could direct and control. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Having strange powers of the mind that another person can control by putting you into a deep sleep.
   - _The mesmerist announced that his young assistant was remarkably sensitive and could describe rooms she had never entered._
   - _Only sensitive subjects, he claimed, could be guided to read sealed letters while entranced._

## Origin

From Middle French sensitif, from Medieval Latin sensitivus.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/sensitive (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).