Medical Definition of adhesive. 1: an adhesive substance; especially : a substance (as glue, starch, paste, or mucilage) that bonds two materials together by adhering to the surface of each.
The sensors physically measure the tire pressure in each tire and report it to the vehicle's instrument cluster or a corresponding monitor. Some units also measure and alert temperatures of the tire as well. These systems can identify under-inflation in any combination, be it one tire or all, simultaneously.
This is your tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) light. If the light is flashing, you have a problem with the monitoring system itself, usually corrected by replacing one or more air pressure sensor assemblies in the wheel. If the light remains on, solid, then one or more of your tires has low pressure.