Synonyms of stupor

stupor

noun

ˈstü-pər 

as in boredom

physical or mental inertness

shocked by news of impending layoffs, the workers shuffled through their shift in a quiet stupor

Synonyms & Similar Words

• boredom
• lethargy
• torpor
• lassitude
• languor
• indifference
• fatigue
• listlessness
• malaise
• laziness
• sleepiness
• hebetude
• narcosis
• inaction
• idleness

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• vigor
• vitality
• vivacity
• enthusiasm
• eagerness
• enterprise
• vim
• ambition
• spiritedness
• keenness

Synonym Chooser

How does the noun stupor contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of stupor are languor, lassitude, lethargy, and torpor. While all these words mean "physical or mental inertness," stupor implies a deadening of the mind and senses by shock, narcotics, or intoxicants.

lapsed into an alcoholic stupor

When is languor a more appropriate choice than stupor?

The words languor and stupor can be used in similar contexts, but languor suggests inertia induced by an enervating climate or illness or love.

languor induced by a tropical vacation

When would lassitude be a good substitute for stupor?

The synonyms lassitude and stupor are sometimes interchangeable, but lassitude stresses listlessness or indifference resulting from fatigue or poor health.

a depression marked by lassitude

Where would lethargy be a reasonable alternative to stupor?

In some situations, the words lethargy and stupor are roughly equivalent. However, lethargy implies such drowsiness or aversion to activity as is induced by disease, injury, or drugs.

months of lethargy followed my accident

When is it sensible to use torpor instead of stupor?

While the synonyms torpor and stupor are close in meaning, torpor implies a state of suspended animation as of hibernating animals but may suggest merely extreme sluggishness.

a once alert mind now in a torpor

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of stupor

Hours later, as the commanders slept at home in a medicated stupor, the handmaids spread out all over with the intent of killing Gilead’s leaders in their sleep. —Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 16 May 2025

Drugs either didn’t work or put him in a severe stupor. —Kayana Szymczak For The New York Times, New York Times, 13 May 2025

Maryland, which trailed 20-9 midway through the first half, stumbled out of its early stupor and went on a 7-0 run to get back in the game. —Christian Babcock, Mercury News, 28 Mar. 2025

German movies of the 1970s will forever be linked with the New German Cinema movement, the auteur directors — led by the likes of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Margarethe von Trotta and Volker Schlöndorff — who shook the country out of its postwar stupor. —Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Feb. 2025