SENSITIVENESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sensitiveness mean? 

• SENSITIVENESS (noun)
  The noun SENSITIVENESS has 4 senses:

1. sensitivity to emotional feelings (of self and others)

2. (physiology) responsiveness to external stimuli; the faculty of sensation

3. the ability to respond to physical stimuli or to register small physical amounts or differences

4. the ability to respond to affective changes in your interpersonal environment

  Familiarity information: SENSITIVENESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SENSITIVENESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sensitivity to emotional feelings (of self and others)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

sensitiveness; sensitivity

Hypernyms ("sensitiveness" is a kind of...):

feeling (the experiencing of affective and emotional states)

Attribute:

sensitive (being susceptible to the attitudes, feelings, or circumstances of others)

insensitive (deficient in human sensibility; not mentally or morally sensitive)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sensitiveness"):

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))

Derivation:

sensitive (being susceptible to the attitudes, feelings, or circumstances of others)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(physiology) responsiveness to external stimuli; the faculty of sensation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

sensibility; sensitiveness; sensitivity

Context example:

sensitivity to pain

Hypernyms ("sensitiveness" is a kind of...):

sensation; sense; sensory faculty; sentience; sentiency (the faculty through which the external world is apprehended)

Domain category:

physiology (the branch of the biological sciences dealing with the functioning of organisms)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sensitiveness"):

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)

Derivation:

sensitive (able to feel or perceive)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The ability to respond to physical stimuli or to register small physical amounts or differences

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

sensitiveness; sensitivity

Context example:

the sensitiveness of Mimosa leaves does not depend on a change of growth

Hypernyms ("sensitiveness" is a kind of...):

physical property (any property used to characterize matter and energy and their interactions)

Attribute:

sensitive (responsive to physical stimuli)

insensitive (not responsive to physical stimuli)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sensitiveness"):

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

Derivation:

sensitive (responsive to physical stimuli)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The ability to respond to affective changes in your interpersonal environment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

sensitiveness; sensitivity

Hypernyms ("sensitiveness" is a kind of...):

ability (the quality of being able to perform; a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sensitiveness"):

antenna; feeler (sensitivity similar to that of a receptor organ)

defensiveness (excessive sensitivity to criticism)

perceptiveness (the quality of insight and sympathetic understanding)

Antonym:

insensitiveness (the inability to respond to affective changes in your interpersonal environment)

Derivation:

sensitive (being susceptible to the attitudes, feelings, or circumstances of others)

 Context examples 

It was not joy only that possessed me; I felt my flesh tingle with excess of sensitiveness, and my pulse beat rapidly.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It was an aching probe to his tired sensitiveness.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I instance this to show the sensitiveness of my nervous organization at the time, and how unused I was to spectacles of brutality.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

M. Krempe was not equally docile; and in my condition at that time, of almost insupportable sensitiveness, his harsh blunt encomiums gave me even more pain than the benevolent approbation of M. Waldman.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)