intensive

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   involving a lot of work or effort in a short time; highly concentrated.

   I took a three-day intensive course in finance.

2. 2
   adj

   needing or using a large amount of something.

   This job is difficult because it is so labour-intensive.

3. 3
   noun

   a short course that teaches a lot in a concentrated period of time.

   She signed up for a summer intensive in creative writing.

Common collocations

• intensive care Adjective + noun
• intensive course Adjective + noun

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English intensive (“fervent, great, intense”), borrowed from Old French intensif, intensive (modern French intensif) + Middle English -ive (suffix meaning ‘of the nature of, relating to’ forming adjectives), equivalent to intense + -ive. Intensif is from Medieval Latin intēnsīvus, from Latin intēnsus (“attentive; eager, intent; intensive”) + -īvus (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘doing; related to doing’); and intēnsus is the perfect passive participle of intendō (“to stretch out, strain”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘to, towards’) + tendō (“to…

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