sensitize
Americanverb (used with object)
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sensitizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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sensitized,
past participle, past
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sensitizing
present participle
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to render sensitive.
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Photography. to render (a film or the like) sensitive to light or other forms of radiant energy.
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Immunology. to render sensitive to an antigenic substance.
verb (used without object)
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sensitizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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sensitized,
past participle, past
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sensitizing
present participle
verb
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to make or become sensitive
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(tr) to render (an individual) sensitive to a drug, allergen, etc
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(tr) photog to make (a material) sensitive to light or to other actinic radiation, esp to light of a particular colour, by coating it with a photographic emulsion often containing special chemicals, such as dyes
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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antisensitizernoun
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sensitizationnoun
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sensitizernoun
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oversensitizeverb
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resensitizeverb (used with object)
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unsensitizeverb (used with object)
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antisensitizingadjective
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nonsensitizedadjective
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nonsensitizingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sensitizesimple
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sensitizessimple
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have sensitizedperfect
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has sensitizedperfect
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am sensitizingprogressive
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are sensitizingprogressive
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is sensitizingprogressive
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have been sensitizingperfect progressive
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has been sensitizingperfect progressive
Past
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sensitizedsimple
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had sensitizedperfect
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was sensitizingprogressive
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were sensitizingprogressive
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had been sensitizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sensitize
First recorded in 1855–60; sensit(ive) + -ize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A well-known figure in the news in Rio, Moscatelli calls the capybaras by human names to sensitize humans to them.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
In patients with ATM alterations, which should sensitize tumors to ATR inhibitors, the ORR increased to 26.1%.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 13, 2024
Starlink has a “traceability program to determine the quality of cocoa, know the farmers, and sensitize them on best practices,” Abubakar said.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 19, 2023
Others, like Odisha, have supplemented legal efforts by setting up memorials to victims at police stations in a bid to sensitize people.
From New York Times ● May 13, 2023
I spoke at local meetings and tried to sensitize people to the need to insist on accountability from law enforcement.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
The allergy -- commonly if inaccurately called the "red meat allergy" -- sensitizes people to a particular sugar, alpha-gal, found in mammalian meat.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 9, 2023
“This sort of display sensitizes the public to issues that were originally hidden.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2021
“I suppose all the mythology sensitizes you, prepares you to be impressed, to feel awe.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 18, 2019
Capsaicin, because it sensitizes the central nervous system, is best for simulating chronic pain.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 25, 2018
Cancer may sometimes require the complementary action of two chemicals, one of which sensitizes the cell or tissue so that it may later, under the action of another or promoting agent, develop true malignancy.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
“Throughout California, throughout the West, throughout communities that have had wildfire experience, we are particularly primed and sensitized to that news,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2025
The authors of these books regarded the fact that other people had become sensitized in their language use as at best a personal affront and at worst a conspiracy.
From Slate ● Jan. 5, 2025
The researchers conclude that once mast cells are sensitized, diverse xenobiotics that never bothered the person previously and do not bother most people trigger multisystem symptoms that wax and wane over time.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 28, 2024
A positive result signals the presence of IgE antibody, which "means you've become sensitized to the substance," he said, "but it doesn't mean you will manifest any allergic symptoms."
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2023
In Cal’s own sensitized mind that suffering was unbearable.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
The findings also encourage the development of drugs that target ARID1A and related proteins as a way of sensitizing other tumors to immunotherapy.
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024
"I don’t know what the solution is, but I suspect that over sensitizing ppl to arbitrary characteristics like skin colour may be doing more harm than good," he continued.
From Fox News ● May 25, 2021
It includes additional pulmonary surfactant genes that the ray-finned fishes lack, as well as DNA for specifying five toes, connecting nerves to limb muscles, and for sensitizing the brain to react fast.
From Science Magazine ● Feb. 10, 2021
“It’s all about sensitizing you to what is harassment,” Shatner continued.
From Salon ● Dec. 19, 2018
Turning his back on the affluent trappings of Duke, Farmer began sensitizing himself to the centuries-old plight of the the poor.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
