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sensitive

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Easily offended, upset.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

sehnsuhtiv

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsɛnsətɪv

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. of a person

    Easily offended, upset, or hurt.

  2. Being susceptible to the attitudes, feelings, or circumstances of others

    “Sensitive to the local community and its needs.”

  3. of an issuetopicetc.

    Capable of offending, upsetting, or hurting.

  4. Being aware of the feelings of others and taking care not to offend them.

  5. Having the faculty of sensation; pertaining to the senses.

  6. Responsive to physical stimuli

    “A mimosa's leaves are sensitive to touch.”

noun

  1. A person with a paranormal sensitivity to something that most cannot perceive.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (of a person) Easily offended, upset, or hurt.

Used this way, sensitive is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Slightly negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • huffy , more casual, better suited to speech than writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

How It’s Used

The word’s distinct uses, one example each.

  • Susceptible / awareadjective

    “Sensitive to the local community and its needs.”

  • Responsiveadjective

    “A mimosa's leaves are sensitive to touch.”

More ways to use sensitive

  • “Sensitive to the local community and its needs.”adjective
  • “A mimosa's leaves are sensitive to touch.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

highly sensitiveless sensitiveextremely sensitiveparticularly sensitivesensitive informationespecially sensitivesensitive naturesensitive area

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • sensitive plantnounCompound term

    Prostrate or semi-erect subshrub of tropical America, and Australia.

  • sensitive peanounCompound term

    Tropical American plant having leaflets somewhat sensitive to the touch.

  • sensitive fernnounCompound term

    Beautiful spreading fern of eastern North America and eastern Asia naturalized in western Europe.

  • wild sensitive plantnounCompound term

    Tropical American plant having leaflets somewhat sensitive to the touch.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: easily offended or upset or or hurt

touchyhuffyInformal

Antonyms

Sense: easily offended or upset or or hurt

insensitive

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.