sensitivity
/ˌsɛn.səˈtɪv.ə.ti/noun
sensitivity is spelled S-E-N-S-I-T-I-V-I-T-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is sensivity: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 111 of all searches for the word. Sensitivity is a noun meaning “The quality or state of being sensitive; sensitiveness”. The plural of sensitivity is sensitivities.
How many letters and syllables are in sensitivity?
| Letters | 11: S-E-N-S-I-T-I-V-I-T-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 8.9 times per million words; the 7,672nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, sensivity, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell sensitivity?
Sensitivity is spelled S-E-N-S-I-T-I-V-I-T-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 111 of the searches for sensitivity in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is sensitivity?
Sensitivity appears 8.9 times per million words in written English, the 7,672nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce sensitivity?
- UK /ˌsɛn.sɪˈtɪv.ɪ.ti/
- UK /ˈsɛnsɪvəti/
- US /ˌsɛn.səˈtɪv.ə.ti/
Sensitivity has 5 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-sensitivity.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with sensitivity?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sensitivity from its last stressed vowel (/ɪvəti/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of sensitivity
- sensitivities plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sensitivity mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The quality or state of being sensitive; sensitiveness.
- 2
The ability of an organism or organ to respond to external stimuli.
- 3
Vulnerability to medical treatment: Synonym of susceptibility.
- 4
The probability, in a binary classification test, of a true positive being correctly identified.
Coordinate term: specificity
- 5
The degree of response of an instrument to a change in an input signal.
- 6
The rate at which the player's facing direction or position changes relative to input device movement.
Since he played with high sensitivity, he only needed to move the mouse a tiny distance to rotate a full 360 degrees.
- 7
The degree of response of a film etc. to light of a specified wavelength.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate sensitivity?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of sensitivity: sens.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sensitivity in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sensibilité , sélectivité |
| German | Sensitivität, Sensibilität , Empfindlichkeit |
| Spanish | sensibilidad , sensitividad |
| Portuguese | sensibilidade |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does sensitivity come from?
From sensitive + -ity.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).