Loading page
say it: in-TEN-siv
intensive is an adjective and noun meaning "characterized by a high degree or intensity; often used as a combining form". It carries 4 recorded senses.
characterized by a high degree or intensity; often used as a combining form
“the questioning was intensive”
“intensive care”
“research-intensive”
“a labor-intensive industry”
tending to give force or emphasis
“an intensive adverb”
of agriculture; intended to increase productivity of a fixed area by expending more capital and labor
“intensive agriculture”
“intensive conditions”
a modifier that has little meaning except to intensify the meaning it modifies
“`up' in `finished up' is an intensifier”
“`honestly' in `I honestly don't know' is an intensifier”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for intensive come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.