<B>sensibility, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ties.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the ability to feel or perceive. <BR> <I>Ex. Some drugs lessen a person's sensibilities.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the quality of being easily and strongly affected by emotional influences; sensitiveness. <BR> <I>Ex. a sensibility to the beauties of nature.</I> (SYN) impressibility. <DD><B> 3. </B>a fineness of feeling; delicate sensitiveness of taste. <BR> <I>Ex. The painter has an unusual sensibility for colors. ... the admiration of every traveller of sensibility and taste (William Prescott).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>a tendency to feel hurt or offended too easily; susceptibility. <DD><B> 5. </B>keen awareness; consciousness. <BR> <I>Ex. a person's sensibility of his own good fortune.</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>(Figurative.) the property, as in plants or certain instruments, of being readily affected by external influences. <BR><I>expr. <B>sensibilities,</B> </I>sensitive feelings; emotional capacities. <BR> <I>Ex. Something intensely human, narrow, and definite pierces to the seat of our sensibilities more readily than huge occurrences and catastrophes (Oliver Wendell Holmes).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sensibilize">
<B>sensibilize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-lized,</B> <B>-lizing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to make sensitive; sensitize. noun <B>sensibilizer.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sensible">
<B>sensible, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>having good sense; showing good judgment; wise. <BR> <I>Ex. She is too sensible to do anything foolish. One hears very sensible things said on opposite sides (George Eliot).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>aware; conscious. <BR> <I>Ex. I am sensible of your kindness. [He] said how deeply sensible he was of the great honour done him (London Times).</I> (SYN) sentient, cognizant. <DD><B> 3. </B>that can be noticed; considerable. <BR> <I>Ex. a sensible reduction in expenses. There is a sensible difference between yellow and orange.</I> (SYN) perceptible, appreciable. <DD><B> 4. </B>that can be perceived by the senses. <BR> <I>Ex. the sensible horizon.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>capable of feeling or perceiving, as organs, tissues, or parts of the body. <DD><B> 6. </B>sensitive. <BR> <I>Ex. sensible of shame.</I> <DD><B> 7. </B>sensitive to external influences, as a thermometer. <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>that which produces sensation; an object of sense. <DD><B> 2. </B>a person who shows sensibility. noun <B>sensibleness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sensibly">
<B>sensibly, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>in a sensible manner; with good sense. (SYN) judiciously, reasonably. <DD><B> 2. </B>so as to be felt. (SYN) perceptibly. </DL>
<A NAME="sensillum">
<B>sensillum, </B>noun, pl. <B>-la.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an elementary sense organ, as a single epithelial cell at the end of a sensory nerve fiber. </DL>
<A NAME="sensingdevice">
<B>sensing device</B> or <B>instrument,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a device or instrument, such as an antenna, gyroscope, or photocell, that reacts in some way when acted upon by electronic or other waves coming from an object. </DL>
<A NAME="sensitive">
<B>sensitive, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>receiving impressions readily. <BR> <I>Ex. The eye is sensitive to light.</I> <DD><B> 2a. </B>easily affected or influenced. <BR> <I>Ex. The mercury in the thermometer is sensitive to changes in temperature.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>easily affected by certain agents. <BR> <I>Ex. paper sensitive to white light.</I> <DD><B> c. </B>(of a radio receiving set) readily affected by incoming radio waves. <DD><B> d. </B>fluctuating or tending to fluctuate rapidly. <BR> <I>Ex. sensitive prices or stocks.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>easily hurt or offended. <BR> <I>Ex. to be sensitive to criticism. She is sensitive when scolded. He was keenly sensitive about his failure.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>of, having to do with, or connected with the senses or sensation. <BR> <I>Ex. the sensitive perception of objects.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>(Medicine.) unusually susceptible. <BR> <I>Ex. sensitive to a serum.</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>(Biology.) able to respond to stimulation by various external agents, such as light or gravity. <DD><B> 7. </B>(Botany.) responding to external stimuli by moving, as the leaves of the sensitive plant. <DD><B> 8. </B>having or involving access to secret or classified documents or data. <BR> <I>Ex. employees occupying sensitive positions in the government.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a person who is sensitive to psychic, hypnotic, or spiritualistic influences; medium. <DD><B> 2. </B>a person having a highly developed sensitive faculty. <BR> <I>Ex. He was a sublime emotional Englishman, who lived by atmosphere. He was a great sensitive (G. K. Chesterton).</I> adv. <B>sensitively.</B> noun <B>sensitiveness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sensitivebrier">
<B>sensitive brier,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a perennial American plant of the pea family, having rose-colored flowers and many leaflets that fold together when touched. It is closely related to the sensitive plant. </DL>
<A NAME="sensitivefern">
<B>sensitive fern,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a North American fern in which the segments of the fronds tend to fold together after being detached. </DL>
<A NAME="sensitivepea">
<B>sensitive pea,</B> <B>=partridge pea.</B></DL>
<A NAME="sensitiveplant">
<B>sensitive plant,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a tropical American mimosa often grown in greenhouses, whose leaflets fold together at the slightest touch. It belongs to the pea family. <DD><B> 2. </B>any one of various other plants sensitive to touch. </DL>
<A NAME="sensitivity">
<B>sensitivity, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ties.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the condition or quality of being sensitive. <BR> <I>Ex. Sentimentality and sensitivity, not in the maudlin but in the highest sense, are perhaps the greatest and most important qualities in a good mother (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 2a. </B>the capacity of an organism or part to respond to stimuli; irritability. <DD><B> b. </B>the degree of this. <DD><B> 3. </B>the degree of responsiveness of an electrical or electronic device, as to a signal. </DL>
<B>sensitivity training,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> training by a group of people, under the guidance of a leader, to develop self-awareness and sensitivity to the feelings of others, as in an encounter group or T-group. </DL>
<A NAME="sensitization">
<B>sensitization, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the act, process, or result of sensitizing or making sensitive. </DL>
<A NAME="sensitize">
<B>sensitize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-tized,</B> <B>-tizing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to make sensitive. Camera films have been sensitized to light. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Immunology.) to make unusually sensitive to a protein or other substance by repeated injections. </DL>
<A NAME="sensitizer">
<B>sensitizer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person or thing that sensitizes. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Photography.) the chemical agent or bath by which films or substances are made sensitive to light. </DL>
<A NAME="sensitometer">
<B>sensitometer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a device or apparatus for determining degree of sensitiveness, especially to light, of the eye, or of photographic plates or films. </DL>
<A NAME="sensitometric">
<B>sensitometric, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with sensitometry. </DL>
<A NAME="sensitometry">
<B>sensitometry, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the determination of the degree of sensitivity of photographic materials. </DL>
<A NAME="sensor">
<B>sensor, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>any one of various devices that react to changes in temperature, radiation, motion, or the like, by generating or transmitting signals that may be used to measure an output or control an automatic operation. <BR> <I>Ex. Feedback in automation depends on sensors to transmit data to the controlling computer.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>any sensing device, such as a radar system, photoelectric cell, or remote sensor. <DD><B> 3. </B>an instrument for recording and transmitting data about physiological changes; biosensor. <BR> <I>Ex. Scientists on the ground received electrocardiograms direct from sensors attached to the spacemen's bodies (Time).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>any sensory structure; sense organ. <BR> <I>Ex. the sensors of an insect.</I> </DL>
<B>sensorimotor, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with both sensory and motor activity in the body. </DL>
<A NAME="sensorium">
<B>sensorium, </B>noun, pl. <B>-soriums,</B> <B>-soria.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the supposed seat of sensation in the brain, usually taken as the cortex or gray matter. <DD><B> 2. </B>the whole sensory apparatus of the body. <DD><B> 3. </B>the brain or mind (an unscientific use of the word). </DL>
<A NAME="sensory">
<B>sensory, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of or having to do with sensation or the senses. The eyes and ears are sensory organs. <DD><B> 2. </B>conveying an impulse from the sense organs to a nerve center. <BR> <I>Ex. sensory nerves, sensory ganglia. Thus we see that some of the nerves are sensory and pick up sensations from sense organs to carry them to the main cords and brain, while others are motor and carry impulses from the brain and main nerves to the muscles in order to produce the proper response to the stimulation (A. M. Winchester).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sensoryperception">
<B>sensory perception,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> perception by the senses; sense perception. </DL>
<A NAME="sensual">
<B>sensual, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of, having to do with, or appealing to the bodily senses rather than the mind or soul. <BR> <I>Ex. Gluttons derive sensual pleasure from eating.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>liking the pleasures of the senses; indifferent to intellectual and moral interests. <BR> <I>Ex. The average sensual man ... whose ideal is the free, gay, pleasurable life of Paris (Matthew Arnold).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>lustful; lewd; unchaste; indulging too much in the pleasures of the senses. (SYN) wanton, lecherous. <DD><B> 4. </B>indicative of a sensual disposition. <BR> <I>Ex. sensual lips.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>of or having to do with the senses or sensation; sensory. <BR> <I>Ex. Of music Doctor Johnson used to say that it was the only sensual pleasure without vice (William Seward).</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>having to do with the doctrine of sensationalism. adv. <B>sensually.</B> </DL>
