INTENSITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does intensity mean? 

• INTENSITY (noun)
  The noun INTENSITY has 4 senses:

1. the amount of energy transmitted (as by acoustic or electromagnetic radiation)

2. high level or degree; the property of being intense

3. the magnitude of sound (usually in a specified direction)

4. chromatic purity: freedom from dilution with white and hence vivid in hue

  Familiarity information: INTENSITY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INTENSITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The amount of energy transmitted (as by acoustic or electromagnetic radiation)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

intensity; intensity level; strength

Context example:

they measured the station's signal strength

Hypernyms ("intensity" is a kind of...):

magnitude (the property of relative size or extent (whether large or small))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "intensity"):

radio brightness (the strength of a radio wave picked up by a radio telescope)

threshold level (the intensity level that is just barely perceptible)

field intensity; field strength (the vector sum of all the forces exerted by an electrical or magnetic field (on a unit mass or unit charge or unit magnetic pole) at a given point in the field)

candlepower; light intensity (luminous intensity measured in candelas)

acoustic power; sound pressure level (the physical intensity of sound)

half-intensity (half the maximum intensity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

High level or degree; the property of being intense

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

intensity; intensiveness

Hypernyms ("intensity" is a kind of...):

degree; grade; level (a position on a scale of intensity or amount or quality)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "intensity"):

force; forcefulness; strength (physical energy or intensity)

badness; severeness; severity (used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather)

emphasis; vehemence (intensity or forcefulness of expression)

top (the greatest possible intensity)

ferocity; fierceness; furiousness; fury; vehemence; violence; wildness (the property of being wild or turbulent)

Derivation:

intense (possessing or displaying a distinctive feature to a heightened degree)

intensify (become more intense)

intensify (make more intense, stronger, or more marked)

intensify (increase in extent or intensity)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The magnitude of sound (usually in a specified direction)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

intensity; loudness; volume

Context example:

the kids played their music at full volume

Hypernyms ("intensity" is a kind of...):

sound property (an attribute of sound)

Attribute:

loud (characterized by or producing sound of great volume or intensity)

soft ((of sound) relatively low in volume)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "intensity"):

crescendo ((music) a gradual increase in loudness)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Chromatic purity: freedom from dilution with white and hence vivid in hue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

chroma; intensity; saturation; vividness

Hypernyms ("intensity" is a kind of...):

color property (an attribute of color)

Holonyms ("intensity" is a substance of...):

chromatic color; chromatic colour; spectral color; spectral colour (a color that has hue)

Derivation:

intense ((of color) having the highest saturation)

intensify (make the chemically affected part of (a negative) denser or more opaque in order produce a stronger contrast between light and dark)

 Context examples 

The average cell intensity for the nine probe cells that compose the cross at the center of the antisense probe array.

(Central Minus, NCI Thesaurus)

A unit of luminous intensity, one of the seven base units of the International System of Units (Systeme International d'Unites, SI).

(Candela, NCI Thesaurus)

The extent of damage depends on the length and intensity of exposure and time until provision of treatment.

(Burn, NCI Thesaurus/CTCAE)

A method for performing probe-level normalization of signal intensity to generate summaries file using CNAT method.

(CNAT Probe Normalization Method, NCI Thesaurus)

The average cell intensity for the antisense probe cells used in the grid alignment process.

(Corner Minus, NCI Thesaurus)

The numeric value to indicate an increase in voxel signal over time for an MRI, expressed as signal intensity units per second.

(Defined Imaging Enhancement Rate Value, NCI Thesaurus)

A unit of measure representing the intensity of an electrical signal or sound which is equal to ten times the logarithm of the ratio of two signals.

(Decibel, NCI Thesaurus)

An indication of the relative light intensity of a source or object.

(Brightness, NCI Thesaurus)

This function normalizes a matrix of probe level intensities.

(Bioconductor caAffy Quantiles Normalization, NCI Thesaurus)

The team used SOFIA data to estimate the total mass of dust in the cloud from the intensity of its emission.

(Missing Link Between Supernovae and Planet Formation, NASA)