Basic Details
Word: Intensive
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Done with a lot of effort or attention on one thing, often in a short time; very thorough.
Synonyms: concentrated, thorough, rigorous, in-depth
Antonyms: light, casual, superficial
How to Spell Intensive
Syllables: in - ten - sive
Tricky part: The ending is sive: keep the s of intense and drop its e before ive. Writing cive or siv are the usual slips.
Watch out for: intencive, intensiv, intesive
Memory tip: Spot the word tens inside in-TENS-ive, then finish with ive, the ending of active and massive.
Usage Examples
Example 1: Before the board exams our school ran a two-week intensive revision camp.
Example 2: Patients who need constant care are moved to the intensive care unit.
Example 3: Farming in Punjab is intensive: the same field gives a rice crop and then a wheat crop every year.
Fun Fact
The first intensive care unit is usually traced to Copenhagen in 1953, set up after a polio epidemic left many patients needing help to breathe.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the word opposite in meaning to intensive as used in the sentence:
Ravi signed up for an intensive Spanish course that met for six hours every day of the holidays.
a) thorough
b) relaxed
c) concentrated
d) rigorous
Show answer
b) relaxed. Six hours a day is hard, focused work; relaxed is the opposite, and the other three agree with intensive.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the word in the sentence and choose it:
The new hospital wing has a fully equipped nisvitene care unit.
a) extensive
b) intrusive
c) intensive
d) inventive
Show answer
c) intensive. Care unit points to the word; the jumble has one v and an s, which rules out inventive, and there is no x, r or u for extensive or intrusive.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
After an intencive search lasting two days, the rescue team found the lost trekkers sheltering in a cave high above the village.
a) sheltering
b) intencive
c) rescue
d) trekkers
Show answer
b) intencive. Intensive keeps the s of intense; a c does not belong in it.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Intensive farming means ____.
a) leaving the fields empty for several years so they can rest
b) keeping only flower beds and no food crops on the farm
c) growing crops only at night under bright electric lights
d) using a lot of work and fertiliser to get big crops from land
Show answer
d) using a lot of work and fertiliser to get big crops from land
2. Choose the word that fits: The doctor kept him in ____ care for two days.
a) intention
b) intense
c) intensive
d) intensity
Show answer
c) intensive
