intensity
Americannoun
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the quality or condition of being intense.
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great energy, strength, concentration, vehemence, etc., as of activity, thought, or feeling.
He went at the job with great intensity.
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a high or extreme degree, as of cold or heat.
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the degree or extent to which something is intense.
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a high degree of emotional excitement; depth of feeling.
The poem lacked intensity and left me unmoved.
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the strength or sharpness of a color due especially to its degree of freedom from admixture with its complementary color.
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Physics. magnitude, as of energy or a force per unit of area, volume, time, etc.
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Speech.
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the correlate of physical energy and the degree of loudness of a speech sound.
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the relative carrying power of vocal utterance.
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noun
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the state or quality of being intense
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extreme force, degree, or amount
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physics
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a measure of field strength or of the energy transmitted by radiation See radiant intensity luminous intensity
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I. (of sound in a specified direction) the average rate of flow of sound energy, usually in watts, for one period through unit area at right angles to the specified direction
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Also called: earthquake intensity. geology a measure of the size of an earthquake based on observation of the effects of the shock at the earth's surface. Specified on the Mercalli scale See Mercalli scale Richter scale
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of intensity
Explanation
The way he stared deep into her eyes was making her uncomfortable. For a first date, this was too much intensity. Intensity is the degree, volume, or magnitude of a thing, such as fire, emotion, weather, work, or passion. Intensity is a word sometimes associated with passion, fire, and violence. It's used when discussing the level of such things as a love affair or, perhaps, a flame. For example, the intensity of the relationship between Bergman and Bogart in Casablanca was very high. Likewise, meteorologists measure the intensity of tornados on the Fujita Scale. Some things are meant to show intensity, such as performance by a great musician. Other things, such as, say, a blanket...not so much.
Vocabulary lists containing intensity
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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:
But he will need time to adapt to the physicality and intensity of the Premier League.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
France currently has 32 active wildfires of varying intensity, the interior minister said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Golding’s central conceit—that consciousness may fabricate its own continuity in the face of annihilation—gives the novel its claustrophobic intensity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Some cycles are longer or shorter than others, and their intensity can vary considerably.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
Her tone is curt, and there’s an intensity in her eyes that wasn’t there moments ago.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
They had identified more than 90 hospitals exposed to shaking intensities beyond six and seven on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
He also found Gisèle de Lestrange, the French printmaker he married in 1952, a companion whose discipline steadied him but could not protect either of them from his intensities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
Mythos — trained to perform deep, multistep reasoning at higher intensities than previous models — is exceptionally good at finding and exploiting vulnerabilities.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 18, 2026
By demonstrating that metformin can limit changes in both major arteries and small capillaries across different exercise intensities, the researchers highlight how complex these combined treatments can be.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 18, 2025
The Betas would process less material but at higher intensities, leaving less flexibility for loss.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
