Sensitize

verb

verb ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make (someone or something) sensitive or responsive to certain stimuli.

    "Anaphylaxis is the syndrome elicited in a hypersensitive subject upon subsequent exposure to the sensitizing antigen."

  2. 2
    make sensitive or aware wordnet
  3. 3
    To make (someone) increasingly aware of, in a concerned or sensitive way.

    "Ever since the burglary, we've been more sensitized to home security issues."

  4. 4
    make (a material) sensitive to light, often of a particular colour, by coating it with a photographic emulsion wordnet
  5. 5
    To render capable of being acted on by actinic rays of light. transitive
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    make sensitive to a drug or allergen wordnet
  2. 7
    cause to sense; make sensitive wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
cultivateexcitefamiliarizefamiliarizequickenrefine

Example

More examples

"Anaphylaxis is the syndrome elicited in a hypersensitive subject upon subsequent exposure to the sensitizing antigen."

Etymology

From sensitive + -ize.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.