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
While cheetahs usually keep their distance from humans, the state forest department has engaged a network of influential people to be cheetah “mitras” — Hindi for friend — to sensitize villagers to their presence.
From New York Times ● Sep. 16, 2022
Earlier this month, the federal government also asked states to sensitize health workers on managing heat-related illnesses and ensure that ice packs, oral rehydration salts, and cooling appliances in hospitals were available.
From Seattle Times ● May 23, 2022
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 dye sensitizes the nanofilaments to visible light.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 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
A skillful installation sensitizes you to myriad variations in the character of works that only at first glance appear not to differ much except in size, from minuscule to monumental.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 11, 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
UW Medicine has also opened conversations with other regional health care systems about working with more highly sensitized patients in the Pacific Northwest.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 27, 2023
I was pushed back in my couch with an acceleration of one half G, but it felt more like 3 Gs to my sensitized body.
From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins
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
The international community is trying to implement lessons from the Sahel by sensitizing people into not joining the jihadis, and organizing community dialogues with officials to foster trust.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 7, 2023
"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
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.
