Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state or quality of being intense; intensity.
  • noun The act of becoming intense or more intense; intensification.
  • noun Logic The sum of the attributes contained in a term.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Intensity, quantity, or degree of a quality, action, or effect.
  • noun The act of making intense; intensification.
  • noun In logic, a term used by Sir William Hamilton for the sum of the characters given in the definition of a term: intended to replace the term comprehension.
  • noun In biology, the origin of a new variety, race, or species from individuals which are restricted from free interbreeding with their kind.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A straining, stretching, or bending; the state of being strained.
  • noun Increase of power or energy of any quality or thing; intenseness; fervency.
  • noun (Logic & Metaph.) The collective attributes, qualities, or marks that make up a complex general notion; the comprehension, content, or connotation; -- opposed to extension, extent, or sphere.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun logic, semantics Any property or quality connoted by a word, phrase or other symbol, contrasted to actual instances in the real world to which the term applies.
  • noun dated A straining, stretching, or bending; the state of being strained.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun what you must know in order to determine the reference of an expression

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin intēnsiō, intēnsiōn-, from intēnsus, stretched; see intense.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin intēnsiō ("straining, effort; intensifying"), from intēnsus ("stretched"), perfect passive participle of intendō ("strain or stretch toward") .

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Examples

Comments

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  • No, it wasn't my intention to list intention.

    January 5, 2007