What does photosensitize mean?
Photosensitize means to make someone or something sensitive to light. Its most familiar use is medical: certain drugs, chemicals, or treatments can photosensitize the skin, causing it to react unusually strongly to sunlight. People who have been photosensitized may develop sunburn-like irritation, redness, or blistering after relatively brief exposure to the sun. The word can also describe making a substance or material responsive to light in a technical or photographic process. It is more specific than the general verb sensitize, because the sensitivity involved is specifically related to light. Photosensitize is related in form and meaning to the adjective photosensitive and the noun photosensitivity. In ordinary conversation, it is most often encountered in discussions of medication side effects, sun safety, dermatology, and laboratory or photographic processes.
verbTo make someone or something sensitive to light, especially to make the skin unusually sensitive to sunlight. The term is used particularly of medications, chemicals, or medical treatments that can cause photosensitivity.
- To make someone or something sensitive to light, especially to cause unusual skin sensitivity to sunlight.
"Some antibiotics can photosensitize the skin, making exposure to strong sunlight risky."
"The medication can photosensitize the skin, so patients are advised to use sunscreen."
"Certain chemicals used in manufacturing photosensitize the material before it is exposed to photographic light."
A drug can photosensitize the skin so strongly that a brief walk in sunlight becomes a medical event.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does photosensitize come from?
Photosensitize combines photo-, from the Greek phōs meaning “light,” with sensitize, which ultimately derives from Latin sentire, meaning “to feel.” The compound’s meaning follows transparently from these elements: to make sensitive to light. Related words include photosensitive, photosensitivity, photosynthesis, and photograph.
Related word forms
How photosensitize is actually used
Photosensitize is a transitive verb, commonly used in medical and pharmacological contexts. It usually takes the affected person, skin, or tissue as its object, although it can also be used intransitively when an agent causes photosensitivity.
Easily confused with photosensitize
Photosensitize is a verb meaning to make something photosensitive, whereas photosensitive is an adjective describing something that is sensitive to light.
Sensitize means to make someone or something generally more sensitive, while photosensitize specifically refers to sensitivity to light.