sensitivityn.
/ˌsɛnsᵻˈtɪvᵻti/, U.S. /ˌsɛnsəˈtɪvədi/ 1. The state or property of being capable of sensation (sensation n. 1f), or of perceiving sensations of a particular type; the degree to which something or someone is capable of sensation. Cf. sensibility n. 2a, sensitiveness n. 1a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > capacity for emotion > sensitiveness or tenderness > [noun]
feeling?c1400
tendernessc1440
heart1557
nicety1583
toucha1586
apprehension1605
tender-heartedness1607
sensibility1609
sensibleness1613
acuteness1644
exquisiteness1650
susceptivity1722
sensation1744
soul1748
susceptibility1753
sensitivity1773
sensitiveness1788
affettuoso1791
sensibilité1817
soulfulness1842
mild-heartedness1849
susceptiveness1873
sensitivism1877
tender-mindedness1907
the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > discernment, discrimination > [noun] > delicacy of > capacity for
sensibility1735
sensitivity1773
the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > [noun]
passibilitya1398
passibleness?a1425
sensibleness?a1425
sensibility?c1425
sense1538
perceptibility1642
sensitiveness1651
passivity1664
aesthesia1829
sentience1839
sentiencya1850
sensitivity1856
sensation1869
1773 J. Richardson Thoughts upon Thinking (ed. 2) 7 (note) This Sensitivity, (by the Bye) or Principium Sentiens, whether primary or secondary, is, perhaps, all we shall ever be able to say or offer about Animal Life..in this present State of Flesh and Blood.
1856 P. E. Dove Logic Christian Faith iv. ii. §5. 221 In the Vegetable World we behold the..germ of individual Sensitivity.
1882 Athenæum 25 Nov. 703/1 The number of grades between the weights that any person can distinguish has to be found by trial, and that number becomes the measure of the coarseness of his sensitivity.
1904 E. B. Titchener tr. W. M. Wundt Princ. Physiol. Psychol. I. 265 We find..symptoms of abrogation or diminution of cutaneous sensitivity upon the uninjured side of the body.
1922 K. Dunlap Elem. Sci. Psychol. iii. 75 The differences between central, para-central and peripheral vision are supposed to be due chiefly to the difference in sensitivity between the rod cells and the cone cells.
2006 New Scientist 21 Oct. 6/4 He found no difference between the sensitivity of the unmarked skin of tattooed individuals and that of their ‘uninked’ counterparts, but tattooed areas appeared less sensitive than clear skin.
2.
a. The quality of being very susceptible or responsive to emotional or aesthetic impressions.
ΚΠ
1803 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. 1 401/1 A sensitivity (if we may so call it) of imagination which makes even the minutest phænomenon appear important to his attention.
1878 Athenæum 12 Oct. 468/3 The world does, indeed, cure a poet of his sensitivity.
1917 Internat. Studio Jan. p. xcviii/1 Matisse's sensitivity to flat form and colour harmony.
1960 Jrnl. Aesthetics & Art Crit. 19 20/1 The use of the Picardy third until the late Baroque is a symptom of the long lasting sensitivity to this difference.
2008 E. S. Hunn Zapotec Nat. Hist. vii. 198 This sensitivity to the beauty and symbolic power of flowers.
b. In plural. Deep-seated feelings about something, esp. matters connected with a person's or group's moral, political, or cultural values held to be inviolable.
ΚΠ
1832 S. Turner Sacred Hist. World I. xiii. 362 All classes of animals, from the greatest to the least, have given striking demonstrations that their mental principle has these moral sensitivities as truly as the superior human spirit.
1856 Lives of Illustrious New Ser. 2 236/2 Passing by..the poison-spitting religious parasites, whose atrabilious sensitivities he had so unceremoniously stirred up, we next find him before the public with his ‘Monologues’.
1888 Liberty 26 May 7/2 If John and Ellen are honest with each other, they will discover that John dislikes music and Ellen dislikes tobacco, and that to lay aside their sensitivities on one occasion may be a slight matter, but..to lay them aside at any time is a really serious matter.
1958 W. J. Lederer & E. Burdick Ugly Amer. xiii. 145 Individual Russians I meet in Burma make an excellent impression. One does not notice them on the street too often. They have been taught our local sensitivities, and usually manage to avoid abusing them.
1977 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 1 Aug. 8/3 At the same time the Americans rattled Canadian sensitivities about Arctic sovereignty by sending the ice-breaking tanker Manhattan through the Northwest Passage.
1999 Guardian 4 Oct. i. 14/2 French sensitivities about their language and the threat posed by galloping Anglo-Saxonisation are well known.
2015 Evening Standard (Nexis) 26 Mar. (Sport section) 72 To pretend this is something fresh and newly threatening is simply wrong. What has changed is more a matter of perception and sensitivities.
c. The quality of being easily hurt or offended; touchiness. Frequently with to.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > anger > irascibility > touchiness > [noun]
touchiness1603
huffiness1678
sensibilities1767
sensitiveness1817
tactility1831
huffishness1841
miffiness1845
hoity-toityism1881
sensitivity1906
prickle1956
1906 A. F. Chamberlain in Ann. Archæol. Rep. 1905 (Legislative Assembly Ontario) 126 Bashfulness in the presence of strangers and keen sensitivity to ridicule.
1962 Econometrica 30 3 His extraordinary sensitivity to criticism.
1995 S. Laurens Reasons for Marriage ix. 210 She was clearly not prepared to take his ridiculous sensitivity into account.
2015 D. Bright Truth doesn't have to Hurt i. 14 Western culture's social sensitivity to criticism is all around us.
d. Delicate and profound appreciation of something, esp. other people's feelings or the emotional, political, or social complexities of a situation. Also: a delicate and profound appreciation of this type.
ΚΠ
1922 Manch. Guardian 18 July 10/2 Its writer's acute sensitivity to the significance of problems which many psychologists and sociologists neglect.
1956 Washington Post 4 Mar. e4/2 White men in the South who apply any degree of imagination and sensitivity to the subject can hardly fail to recognize that segregation is inevitably painful, humiliating and degrading.
1963 Times 15 June 8/7 The Bishop..was sorrowed by the lack of sensitivity shown by Congress.
1984 K. Davis & W. C. Frederick Business & Society (ed. 5) xiii. 328 Familiarity with the arts may make better managers, by broadening their outlook, improving their sensitivities to the external environment, and helping them become more adept at perceiving social change.
2012 Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) (Nexis) 5 Dec. 4 The health board has shown great flexibility in considering this matter again, showing sensitivity to the evident and deep-seated local concerns.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > [noun] > physical sensation
feelinga1225
witc1290
sentimentc1374
perceivinga1398
scentc1422
feelc1450
sensation1598
aesthesis1601
sensing1613
sensity1613
resentment1634
perceptiona1652
scenting1657
sensating1666
awaring1674
sensitivity1819
sense perception1846
sentition1865
1819 J. Richardson tr. I. Kant Logic Introd. 10 For, as the sensitivity, or the sensitive faculty (sensualitas) [Ger. Sinnlichkeit], is the faculty of intuitions, the understanding is that of thinking, that is to say, of reducing the representations of the senses to rules.
1889 St. G. Mivart Origin Human Reason ii. 75 How much greater.., then, may not be the sensitive powers of creatures whose whole being is entirely given up to sensitivity, without its being interfered with by any intellectual activity!
4.
a. The quality or fact of being acutely affected by or sensitive to external stimuli or conditions. Chiefly with to.
ΚΠ
1862 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 11 Jan. 37/2 The application of ice or freezing mixtures to the hernial tumour diminishes its sensitivity and allows it to be handled with less pain.
1871 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 30 Sept. 369/1 An area of skin on the outer side of the right leg..was..in a condition of extreme sensitivity to impressions capable of exciting reflex movements.
1918 E. B. Titchener Experimental Psychol. I. ii. iii. 89 Sensitivity to cold has a greater range..than sensitivity to warmth.
1980 Drug & Alcohol Dependence 6 373 Abstinence symptoms such as loss of body weight, sensitivity to touch and inversion of locomotor activity.
2008 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 12 Oct. (Business section) 4/2 Black silicon has since been found to have extreme sensitivity to light.
b. Photography. The degree to which photographic film, paper, emulsion, etc., is sensitive to light or other radiation. Also with of or to.
ΚΠ
1863 Photogr. Jrnl. 15 Oct. 374/1 He supposes pure iodide of silver to be indifferent to light, and thinks that its sensitivity arises only from a trace of nitrate.
1899 Sci. Amer. Suppl. 4 Feb. 19313/2 He then tried whether the addition of a substance capable of absorbing the yellow rays..would increase the sensitivity of his bromized collodion to yellow.
1928 Financial Times 17 Dec. 13/2 The sensitivity of silver emulsions to different colours plays a very important part in dealing with colour ‘snapshots’.
1951 Pop. Photogr. May 74 (advt.) Some [films] have high sensitivity to photoflood light.
1993 Sci. Amer. Aug. 60/2 Airglow causes a gradual fogging of photographic plates, limiting their sensitivity.
2015 C. James Bk. Alternative Photogr. Processes (ed. 3) v. 136/1 Be careful not to apply too much heat..to the newly sensitized damp paper because that temperature change will cause a loss of sensitivity.
c. The ability of a measuring instrument to respond to or record slight changes of condition; the degree to which an instrument is able to do this.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > [noun] > return action or operation > ratio of response to stimulus
sensitivity1891
1891 Trans. Edinb. Obstetrical Soc. 16 69 The attachment of the rods..tends to diminish the sensitivity of the instrument.
1907 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 79 82 The vibration of the building..during working hours quite masked the sensitivity of the instrument.
1918 E. S. Ferry Handbk. Physics Measurem. II. iv. 179 (heading) Determination of the sensitivity of a galvanometer.
1973 Nature 7 Dec. 343/2 An unsuccessful search for gravitational radiation was reported about a year ago.., with detectors of comparable sensitivity to those of Weber.
2005 R. E. Newnham Properties of Materials xv. 159 Magnetostrictive sensor materials can provided hundreds of times the sensitivity of semiconductor strain gauges.
d. Radio. The degree to which a receiver or other part of a radio system is capable of picking up or responding to weak radio signals.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > radio equipment > [noun] > radio set > receiver > qualities of
selectivity1903
sensitivity1918
1918 Circular U.S. Bureau of Standards No. 74 xliii. 168 With the ordinary audion connections,..the sensitivity is about the same as that of the best crystal detectors.
1931 J. A. Moyer & J. F. Wostrel Radio Handbk. iii. 124 Many crystals do not have a uniform sensitivity over the entire surface.
1962 Which? Feb. 40/1 We tested the radios to see how well they would receive weak stations. Their ability to do this is called sensitivity.
1975 G. J. King Audio Handbk. v. 111 Each channel of a two- or four-channel amplifier should be measured for sensitivity independently.
2002 Joplin (Missouri) Globe 21 Feb. Personal FM radio & stereo cassette player. High Sensitivity FM Receiver.
e. Medicine. The ability of a diagnostic or screening test to identify individuals affected with a specific disease or condition; the degree to which a test is able to do this. Frequently contrasted with specificity (specificity n. Additions).The sensitivity of a test can also be understood as the ratio of true positive results to true positive plus false negative results.
ΚΠ
1918 Lancet 4 May 631/1 With this improvement the test gained greatly in sensitivity and specificity.
1955 Sci. Amer. Mar. 68/2 The three procedures represent an ascending scale of sensitivity, and a descending scale of specificity.
1977 Ann. Internal Med. 86 513/1 The more standard definition relates the false-positive rate only to the specificity of the test and the false-negative rate to the sensitivity of the test.
2003 Washington Post 17 June (Home ed.) f5/3 The ability of a test to correctly identify people with a disease is called its sensitivity, while its ability to correctly identify people without a disease is called specificity.
f. The degree and manner in which (the output of) a mathematical model responds to small changes in one or more of its inputs. Cf. sensitivity analysis n. at Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1955 Managem. Sci. 1 175 Manipulation of a model often demonstrates the sensitivity of the results to the values of parameters in specified ranges.
1980 G. M. Greene Testing Urban Climate Simulator 16 An understanding of the sensitivity of the model..can be used to improve simulation techniques.
2011 K. J. Beven & R. E. Brazier in R. P. C. Morgan & M. Nearing Handbk. Erosion Modelling iv. 62 Ideally, sensitivity of a model to variations in parameter values should be assessed via comparison of model output with observed data.
5. Of an issue, situation, etc.: the potential to cause alarm, offence, or controversy, or to have serious repercussions. Frequently with reference to matters involving national security.
ΚΠ
1952 N.Y. Times 23 Aug. 8/1 ‘This reporter,’ Mr. White said today, ‘in full awareness of the sensitivity of the issue.., sent to The New York Times..a dispatch stating that Senator Nixon would not endorse Senator McCarthy.’
1984 69th National Conf. Weights & Meas. (U.S. Dept. Commerce) App. B, 177 These criteria and/or procedures will be submitted to the NTEP Technical Subcommittee either by letter ballot, regularly scheduled meeting, or at a specially called meeting, depending on the complexity or sensitivity of the material.
1990 J. Paxman Friends in High Places (BNC) Because of the sensitivity of the subjects under consideration, the highest recommendation in considering who might be suitable to sit on these investigations is the fact that they have a safe pair of hands.
2015 Independent (Nexis) 11 May The official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said photographs from North Korea showing a rocket launched from the sea appeared to be authentic.
Compounds
C1. Psychology (chiefly North American). attributive. Designating training in small groups intended to increase participants' awareness of, and responsiveness to, their own and others' behaviour, feelings, and motives, esp. in sensitivity group, sensitivity training. Cf. T-group n. at T n. Initialisms 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > social psychology > group psychology > [noun] > sensitivity training group
sensitivity1945
T-group1950
1945 Sociometry 8 422 Sensitivity training is an important part of the training process, for supervisors..are often insensitive to both the reactions of their workers and their own methods of leadership.
1969 Listener 26 June 881/1 A sensitivity group of persons gets together in order to cultivate a heightened awareness of themselves and each other, in a sort of group therapy.
1971 Harvest Years Mar. 8/2 (caption) A few scenes from a sensitivity session.
1977 E. G. Bormann & N. C. Bormann Speech Communication (ed. 2) i. 12 Sensitivity groups have been used to train management personnel..and to institute individual and organizational change.
2002 D. Goleman et al. Business: Ultimate Resource 1255/1 One means of helping people to create positive group dynamics is sensitivity training.
C2.
sensitivity analysis n. the mathematical study of how the output of a model or process is affected by uncertainty or variability in each of its inputs; an instance of this.
ΚΠ
1951 W. J. Dixon & F. J. Massey Introd. Statist. Anal. Index 363 Assumptions,..in sensitivity analysis.
1967 Financial Times 12 June 13/6 This technique, called ‘sensitivity analysis’, consists of calculating all the likely relevant profit outcomes from an investment.
1972 Managem. Sci. 18 395 A sensitivity analysis indicated that changes in these values have an effect on the queue length.
2015 D. S. Fairhurst Using Excel for Business Anal. (ed. 2) xi. 338 Scenarios and sensitivity analysis are great ways to insulate your model from risk.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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