intense
/ɪnˈtɛns/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.39 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of a characteristic: extreme or very high or strong in degree; severe; also, excessive, towering.
adj
Of a thing: possessing some characteristic to an extreme or very high or strong degree.
adj
Of a person: very emotional or passionate.
Example Sentences
- "Nor was I yet able to passe through any of the narrower streets, but kept the widest; the ground and air, smoake and fiery vapour, continu'd so intense that my haire was almost sing'd, and my feete unsufferably surbated."
- "[…] Nature had a robe of glory on, / And the bright air o'er every shape did weave / Intenser hues, so that the herbless stone, / The leafless bough among the leaves alone, / Had being clearer than its own could be, […]"
- "[…] Pietro di Medici then gave, at the period of one great epoch of consummate power in the arts, the perfect, accurate, and intensest possible type of the greatest error which nations and princes can commit, respecting the power of genius entrusted to their guidance."
- "Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages."
- "[T]h' intense atom glows / A moment, then is quenched in a most cold repose."
- "These pendent lamps and chandeliers are bright / As earthly fires from dull dross can be cleansed; / Yet could my eyes drink up intenser beams / Undazzled—this is darkness—when I close / These lids, i see far fiercer brilliances,— […]"
Etymology
From Late Middle English intens, intense (“ardent, fervent; extreme, great, intense”), borrowed from Old French intense (modern French intense), or directly from its etymon Latin intēnsus (“strained, stretched tight; intense; attentive; violent; (rare) eager, intent”), the perfect passive participle of intendō (“to stretch out, strain”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + tendō (“to extend, stretch”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (“to extend, stretch”)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɪnˈtɛns/
- British English: /ɪnˈtɛns/
Inflected Forms
intenser (comparative)
more intense (comparative)
intensest (superlative)
most intense (superlative)