intense

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   very strong, great, or extreme.

   The intense heat made it hard to stay outside for long.

2. 2
   adj

   having or showing very strong feelings or concentration.

   She gave the problem her intense focus all afternoon.

3. 3
   adj

   of a person: very serious and emotional.

   The artist was a small, intense man with piercing blue eyes.

Common collocations

• intense pressure Adjective + noun

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”)).

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