intensive
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.involving a lot of work, effort, or detail in a short amount of time.
adj.characterised by a high degree of concentration, thoroughness, or effort within a limited timeframe.
Simple“The students took an intensive one-week course to improve their coding skills.”
In context“The diplomatic team engaged in intensive negotiations over the weekend to prevent the collapse of the trade agreement.”
SynonymsAntonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
adj.needing a large amount of a specific resource, like money or workers.
adj.requiring a high input of a specific factor or resource relative to other factors; typically used in hyphenated compounds.
Simple“Fruit picking is a labor-intensive job because it must be done by hand.”
In context“The transition to a green economy requires a shift away from carbon-intensive industries toward sustainable manufacturing processes.”
UsageUsually follows a noun with a hyphen, such as 'labor-intensive' or 'capital-intensive'.
- 03 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.related to the part of a hospital for people who are very seriously ill.
adj.pertaining to the continuous and extremely close monitoring of patients with life-threatening conditions.
Simple“He was moved to the intensive care unit after his heart surgery.”
In context“The patient remained in intensive care for three days while the medical team monitored her respiratory function.”
Synonyms - 04 C2 Proficiency
n.a word or part of a word that makes another word stronger.
n.a linguistic form, such as a prefix or suffix, that serves to increase the force or degree of the root word.
Simple“In some languages, repeating a word acts as an intensive to show more power.”
In context“The scholar argued that the prefix in this specific dialect functions as an intensive rather than a simple directional marker.”
Synonymsintensifier
Usage intensive care · intensive programme · intensive study
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English intensive (“fervent, great, intense”), borrowed from Old French intensif, intensive (modern French intensif) + Middle English -ive (suffix meaning ‘of the nature of, relating to’ forming adjectives), equivalent to intense + -ive. Intensif is from Medieval Latin intēnsīvus, from Latin intēnsus (“attentive; eager, intent; intensive”) + -īvus (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘doing; related to doing’); and intēnsus is the perfect passive participle of intendō (“to stretch out, strain”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘to, towards’) + tendō (“to extend, stretch, stretch out”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (“to extend, stretch”)). Doublet of intend. The noun is derived from the adjective.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.