sensitise
/'sensitaiz/ Cách viết khác : (sensitise) /'sensitaiz/
Học thuậtThân thiện
The teacher used a special lesson to sensitise the students to the needs of their new classmate.
Definition
- Verb (transitive):
- To make someone or something more aware, responsive, or reactive to a particular stimulus, condition, or issue: The process of increasing sensitivity or consciousness.
- To make a material (especially photographic film or paper) sensitive to light or other forms of radiation: A chemical process for use in photography.
- To cause an organism to develop an allergic or reactive response to a substance: Often used in medical or biological contexts regarding allergies or drug reactions.
Usage and Examples
Making someone aware or responsive:
- The training aimed to sensitise the staff to cultural differences in the workplace.
- Documentaries can sensitise the public to environmental problems.
Making a material photosensitive:
- In the darkroom, you must sensitise the paper before exposing it to light through the negative.
Causing an allergic or reactive response:
- Repeated exposure to the chemical can sensitise the skin, leading to a rash.
- Some antibiotics may sensitise patients, causing future doses to trigger an allergic reaction.
Advanced Usage and Nuances
In Social Contexts: Often used in discussions about social awareness, diversity training, or education to describe the process of fostering understanding and empathy.
- The workshop was designed to sensitise managers to unconscious bias.
In Medicine/Immunology: Describes the process where an initial exposure to an allergen primes the immune system to react strongly upon subsequent exposures.
- The first bee sting can sensitise an individual, making a second sting potentially dangerous.
Variants and Related Words
- Sensitize: The preferred spelling in American English. "Sensitise" is the common spelling in British English.
- Sensitisation/Sensitization (noun): The act or process of making sensitive.
- Public sensitisation to the issue has led to policy changes.
- Desensitise (verb): The opposite action; to make less sensitive.
- Sensitive (adjective): Responsive to or aware of stimuli, feelings, or nuances.
- Sensitivity (noun): The quality or state of being sensitive.
Synonyms
- Acquaint: To make familiar or aware.
- Alert: To make aware of a potential issue.
- Prime: To prepare or make ready to respond.
- Photosensitise: Specifically for making sensitive to light (a more precise synonym in technical contexts).
Phrasal Verbs / Common Collocations
- Sensitise someone to something: This is the standard construction.
- The program sensitises students to the challenges faced by refugees.
- Become sensitised to something: Describes the resulting state of the person or organism.
- After living abroad, he became sensitised to different communication styles.
Notes on Meaning
- The core meaning involves inducing a state of heightened responsiveness. This can be:
- Cognitive/Emotional: Increasing awareness or empathy (e.g., to social issues).
- Physical/Chemical: Altering a material's properties (e.g., photographic film).
- Biological/Immunological: Triggering a physiological reaction (e.g., an allergy).
- It is a causative verb; the subject causes the object to become sensitive.
The teacher used a special lesson to sensitise the students to the needs of their new classmate.
Verb
- make sensitive or aware
- He was not sensitized to her emotional needs
- make (a material) sensitive to light, often of a particular colour, by coating it with a photographic emulsion
- sensitize the photographic film
- make sensitive to a drug or allergen
- Long-term exposure to this medicine may sensitize you to the allergen
- cause to sense; make sensitive
- She sensitized me with respect to gender differences in this traditional male-dominated society
- My tongue became sensitized to good wine