intensive
intensive — adjective
1. involving concentrated effort, work, or activity that happens within a relativel
involving concentrated effort, work, or activity that happens within a relatively brief span, often demanding full attention or a high level of energy
Rania took an intensive two-week language course before moving to Seoul for her new job.
intensive + [duration] + course / training / program
The athletes went through an intensive training camp to prepare for the Olympic trials.
attributive: intensive training / therapy / care
Chidi works in the intensive care unit and looks after patients who need constant monitoring.
Christopher signed up for an intensive weekend workshop on web development.
Building the bridge required intensive labor and long shifts over just six months.
combining form: labor-intensive / capital-intensive / resource-intensive
- intensive course
- intensive training
- intensive care
- intensive therapy
- intensive program
- intensive workshop
- labor-intensive
- capital-intensive
- energy-intensive
- concentrated
focuses on density and lack of dilution rather than time pressure
- rigorous
emphasises strictness and discipline rather than time constraint
- accelerated
specifically about being faster than usual, not just concentrated
Grammar Patterns
intensive + noun
noun-intensive (as combining form)
Usage Note
This sense is most often used before nouns such as course, training, care, therapy, or program. As a combining form attached to a noun with a hyphen (-intensive), it indicates that an activity requires large amounts of a particular resource — for example, labor-intensive (needing many workers), capital-intensive (needing a lot of money), or energy-intensive (using large amounts of power). Unlike intense, which describes the strength of a feeling or quality, intensive describes how effort or resources are packed into a limited time or space.
Common Mistakes
2. carried out with very close attention to every aspect or detail, covering all pa
carried out with very close attention to every aspect or detail, covering all parts of a subject in a thorough and careful way
Detectives launched an intensive search of the woodland after the child went missing.
intensive + search / investigation / inquiry
Months of intensive research led the team to a compound that stops virus spread.
Mayumi gave each application an intensive review before deciding who to interview.
intensive + review / analysis / examination
The committee conducted an intensive inquiry into the causes of the factory fire.
- intensive search
- intensive research
- intensive investigation
- intensive review
- intensive analysis
- intensive inquiry
- intensive study
- thorough
more common in everyday English; less formal than 'intensive'
- comprehensive
emphasises covering everything, similar scope but less emphasis on depth
- in-depth
focuses on depth rather than breadth of coverage
- superficial
opposite of thorough or detailed
- cursory
done quickly without attention to detail
Grammar Patterns
intensive + noun of examination or analysis
Usage Note
Commonly paired with nouns of examination or analysis such as search, investigation, research, review, or inquiry. The emphasis is on the depth and completeness of the work, not necessarily on time pressure (which is the focus of sense 1).
Common Mistakes
3. describing a way of producing crops or raising animals that relies on chemicals,
describing a way of producing crops or raising animals that relies on chemicals, machinery, and small areas of land to obtain the largest possible amount of food or other output
Intensive farming methods raise grain production but can reduce soil quality over time.
domain-specific: intensive farming / intensive agriculture / intensive livestock
Sirin works on an intensive farm that uses chemicals to increase crop yields.
attributive: intensive farm / intensive farming
The government promotes intensive agriculture to feed more people without clearing more forest.
Imran compared intensive pig farming with free-range systems for cost and animal welfare.
- intensive farming
- intensive agriculture
- intensive cultivation
- intensive livestock farming
- intensive pig farming
- intensive poultry production
- high-yield
focuses on output volume rather than the method of production
- industrial-scale
emphasises large-scale commercial operation rather than the farming method specifically
Grammar Patterns
intensive + farming / agriculture / cultivation
Usage Note
This sense is contrasted with extensive farming, which uses larger areas of land with lower inputs of labour, fertiliser, and machinery per hectare. Intensive agriculture often raises environmental concerns about soil depletion, water use, and pollution.
intensive — noun
1. in grammar, a word or element, such as 'very,' 'absolutely,' or 'extremely,' tha
in grammar, a word or element, such as 'very,' 'absolutely,' or 'extremely,' that adds strength or emphasis to the meaning of the word it modifies without changing the core sense
In the sentence 'She was absolutely thrilled,' the word 'absolutely' acts as an intensive.
grammatical role: acts as an intensive / functions as an intensive
Élise learned that 'very' is the most common intensive in spoken English.
Teachers sometimes tell students not to overuse intensives like 'really' and 'totally' in formal writing.
Henrik's essay analysed how intensives in advertising create a sense of urgency.
- act as an intensive
- function as an intensive
- common intensive
- overuse intensives
- grammatical intensive
- intensifier
the more widely used modern term in linguistics and language teaching
- downtoner
a word that reduces the strength of meaning, e.g. 'slightly,' 'barely'
Grammar Patterns
function as an intensive
used as an intensive
Usage Note
This is a specialised term in grammar and linguistics. The more common word for this concept is intensifier. Examples of intensives include very, extremely, absolutely, totally, completely, and highly. Intensives do not add new meaning — they simply strengthen the degree of the word they accompany.