intense

intense, vehement, fierce, exquisite, violent are comparable when meaning extreme in degree, power, or effect. Al-though several of them often are used interchangeably without clear distinction, they can be employed in ways that reveal many differences in implications and applications.

Intense is especially appropriate when the idea of great depth (as in quality, reach, or effect) is to be implied. In such use intense may apply to thoughts or thinking, to feeling or emotion, to such an outstanding quality or character as color, brilliancy, or tone, or to something that suggests a straining or a being strained (as in the attainment of an end or effect)

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intense concentration

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intense hatred

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intense silence

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work so intense that it takes the last inch out of the workers— Shaw

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he was in such an intense mood that humor was entirely barred out— M. E. Freeman

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one of the inspired moments that come to intense natures, working intensely, had come to him— Anderson

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Vehement and fierce (see also FIERCE) suggest a manifestation of abundant energy or force, and connote, fierce to a greater degree than vehement, ardency, impetuosity, or urgency

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jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehe-ment flame— Song of Sol 8:6

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the temper of monists has been so vehement, as almost at times to be convulsive— James

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if vehement assertions on the one side have driven me into too vehement dissent on the other, I crave pardon— Quiller-Couch

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she burns with a fierce pietistic suspiciousness of all the arts— Trilling

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so fierce were the passions that had been aroused, that again he was in danger of violence— Froude

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Exquisite (see also CHOICE) raises the implications of intense to a point suggesting an extreme near to consummateness or completeness. In this sense it has been applied indifferently to things good or bad but often with the result that, when applied to such things as cleanliness, some feelings, judgment, or color which may be called good, its meaning is taken as equal to that of exquisite at CHOICE; thus, although exquisite cleanliness may mean cleanliness so extreme that it suggests immoderateness, it is usually thought of as cleanliness so perfect that it gives joy to the fastidious. Consequently, exquisite in this sense is more often applied to what is felt or apprehended keenly or acutely

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with a brilliant mind, nervous temperament, intense susceptibility to artistic and spiritual impressions . . . [she] was attuned to exquisite pleasure and exquisite pain— Hanscom

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subject a person to exquisite torture

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Violent (for senses of acting with or caused by violence compare violence under FORCE) implies immoderate strength or force and, usually, the exceeding of normal bounds even in something that is strong or forcible; the term need not impute a disagreeable quality to that to which it is applied, but the possibility of this implication is more frequent than in the other terms

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violent heat

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his intense faith and his violent spiritual agonies are experiences which few of us today are able to share— Day Lewis

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an unreasoning passion of despair descended upon them both, violent yet essentially slight— Wylie

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Analogous words: intensified, enhanced, heightened, aggravated (see INTENSIFY): accentuated, emphasized, stressed (see corresponding nouns at EMPHASIS)

Antonyms: subdued (colors, lights, emotions)