- Possessing or displaying a distinctive feature to an extreme degree: the intense sun of the tropics.
- Extreme in degree, strength, or size: intense heat.
- Involving or showing strain or extreme effort: intense concentration.
- Deeply felt; profound: intense emotion.
- Tending to feel deeply: an intense writer.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin intēnsus, stretched, intent, from past participle of intendere, to stretch, intend. See intend.]
intensely in·tense'ly adv.intenseness in·tense'ness n.
SYNONYMS intense, fierce, vehement, violent. These adjectives mean of an extreme kind: intense fear; fierce pride; vehement dislike; violent rage.
USAGE NOTE The meanings of intense and intensive overlap considerably, but they are often subtly distinct. When used to describe human feeling or activity, intense often suggests a strength or concentration that arises from inner dispositions and is particularly appropriate for describing emotional states: intense pleasure, intense dislike, intense loyalty, and so forth. Intensive is more frequently applied when the strength or concentration of an activity is imposed from without: intensive bombing, intensive training, intensive marketing. Thus a reference to Mark's intense study of German suggests that Mark himself was responsible for the concentrated activity, whereas Mark's intensive study of German suggests that the program in which Mark was studying was designed to cover a great deal of material in a brief period.
