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as in unconscious
having lost consciousness if a choking person is insensible, you should lay them down on their back before performing the Heimlich maneuver

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as in insensate
lacking animate awareness or sensation even the canyon's insensible rocks seemed to mock the stranded climber's utter helplessness

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of insensible Para añadir más ofensas, YouTube TV decidió tomar esta medida durante el Mes de la Herencia Hispana, un acto profundamente insensible y ofensivo. Todd Spangler, Variety, 1 Oct. 2025 Also invited, for insensible reasons, is Neville’s first wife, Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland), blond to Kay’s brunette, for easy identification. Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2025 The ‘real’ Camille, meanwhile, has become an insensible, comatose carcass, although no one seems to notice. Damon Wise, Deadline, 24 Jan. 2025 Foreman tumbled downward in a dizzy, slow-motion-like crash, full-weight, a helpless giant, insensible. Mikal Gilmore, Rolling Stone, 17 Jan. 2025 Or lobbyists can sometimes intervene and gain insensible exemptions from bans. IEEE Spectrum, 10 Feb. 2024 The novel positions him as insensible to agendas, hopelessly subject to the whims of the altruistic and the cruel. Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for insensible
Adjective
  • That was when the seizure occurred, making her fall unconscious.
    David Chiu, PEOPLE, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Upon arriving at her unit, officers found her unconscious and unresponsive; EMS officials responded to the scene and found the actress dead.
    KiMi Robinson, USA Today, 12 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Due to their high metabolism and sensitive respiratory system, these small, yellow songbirds succumbed to the invisible, odorless gas much faster than humans.
    Big Think, Big Think, 13 Oct. 2025
  • However, despite its brilliance, the system remains invisible in optical wavelengths, shrouded by thick layers of dust and gas.
    Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 12 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Meanwhile, the rest of his look was rather, well, nonchalant.
    Skyler Caruso, PEOPLE, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Despite its hefty price tag, Chalamet styled the piece in a nonchalant way, pairing it with a leather jacket, sweatpants, and a cool pair of tan sneakers.
    Christian Allaire, Vogue, 12 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • The brain, like other internal organs, is insensate, its lack of sensory receptors attested by videos of virtuoso violinists who play on unfazed as neurosurgeons go to work inside their skulls.
    Matthew Ponsford, WIRED, 19 Sep. 2024
  • But states have used midazolam alone — and at much higher doses — in executions since 2013, claiming the drug will render people insensate to pain before the administration of other lethal injection drugs.
    Lauren Gill, ProPublica, 29 Apr. 2023
Adjective
  • The president has been targeting Jeffries online with offensive and vulgar memes since the pair first had an unsuccessful sit-down meeting in the Oval Office just before the shutdown.
    Zachary Schermele, USA Today, 9 Oct. 2025
  • One room cracked up at a vulgar joke about a woman’s behind, while another went for an outrageous and surreal midfilm montage — but each bit was made genuinely funnier by the dozens of people gasping and wheezing over it.
    Robert Rubsam, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • The pilot has moments both sweet and funny, and sets up the possibility of romance amongst the characters, as well as further high jinks from a rotating cast of license seekers and citizens ignorant of the requirements for a Real ID.
    Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 11 Oct. 2025
  • At the time, central Appalachia was widely depicted in the popular press as a backward, ignorant region whose mountainous terrain kept its people isolated, outside the flow of progress – a stereotype still common today.
    The Conversation, The Conversation, 7 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • But about two-thirds of the way through, Roofman makes a quiet, almost imperceptible shift toward melancholy.
    Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 10 Oct. 2025
  • The imperceptible do-si-do of my matter and yours in the air between us.
    Betty Gilpin, HollywoodReporter, 9 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Nylons are a must with all but the most casual outfits.
    Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 12 Oct. 2025
  • Find it at a casual affair or on the elegant Thanksgiving buffet.
    Nellah Bailey McGough, Southern Living, 12 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Insensible.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/insensible. Accessed 19 Oct. 2025.

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