Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The property or character of being sensitive; especially, tendency or disposition to be easily influenced or affected by external objects, events, or circumstances: as, abnormal sensitiveness; the sensitiveness of a balance or some fine mechanism.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The ability to perceive sensation.
  • noun The ability to be aware of (and, usually, react with regard to) the feelings of others.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun sensitivity to emotional feelings (of self and others)
  • noun (physiology) responsiveness to external stimuli; the faculty of sensation
  • noun the ability to respond to affective changes in your interpersonal environment
  • noun the ability to respond to physical stimuli or to register small physical amounts or differences

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From sensitive + -ness

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Examples

  • His great sensitiveness is touchingly shown in his representation of this first contact with the Lord; the circumstances are present to him in the minutest details; he still remembers the Very hour.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • ‘Yes; — but the worst of it is, that when they suffer from this weakness, which you call sensitiveness, they think that they are made of finer material than other people.

    The Prime Minister 1876

  • "Yes; -- but the worst of it is, that when they suffer from this weakness, which you call sensitiveness, they think that they are made of finer material than other people.

    The Prime Minister Anthony Trollope 1848

  • The term “allergy” can be defined as the sensitiveness of body to a particular food, substance or odour which primarily does not affect other persons.

    Natural Remedies for Curing Allergies 2009

  • Their sensitiveness is a thing we have been trained, for self-defence, to repress.

    The Growth of the Soil 2003

  • It might be a mere fancy springing from a jealous sensitiveness, which is disappointed if it be not paid in the full measure of its own coin.

    The Knight of the Golden Melice A Historical Romance John Turvill Adams

  • The French call sensitiveness to insignificant and worthless things, the German way of quarreling (faire querelle d'allemand).

    Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

  • But in ascending the series from simple twiners to leaf-climbers, an important quality is added, namely sensitiveness to a touch, by which means the foot-stalks of the leaves or flowers, or these modified and converted into tendrils, are excited to bend round and clasp the touching object.

    VII. Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection 1909

  • The Japanese desire to conform to the customs and appearances of those about him is due to what I have called sensitiveness; his success is due to the flexibility of his mental constitution.

    Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic Sidney Lewis Gulick 1902

  • His sensitiveness was a disease, his pride was the only thing that kept him going; his love of her, strong as it was, would be drowned in an imagined shame!

    The Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Gilbert Parker Gilbert Parker 1897

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