as in blank
not expressing any emotion
a catatonic stare was all that the neglected resident of the nursing home seemed capable of
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Recent Examples of catatonic
Winter Passing focuses on Reese (Zooey Deschanel), a struggling New York actress who heads to Michigan to reunite with her distant, brilliant, nearly catatonic author father (Ed Harris).
—
Tim Grierson, Vulture, 4 Feb. 2025
Do not let despair or doom and gloom put you into a catatonic funk.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 17 Jan. 2025
Things were going fair to middling with his candidacy until Biden’s catastrophic, catatonic debate performance in June, which caused a major Democratic freak-out and resulted in his grudging departure from the ticket and endorsement of Harris.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2024
Netto and Schindler take pains to point out the irony of Iris’ predicament: Iris has emerged from the emotionally catatonic state that she’s been in since the day of her son’s accident… just to wind up in a physically catatonic state at the site of her son’s accident.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 25 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for catatonic
Tim Grierson, Vulture, 4 Feb. 2025
Do not let despair or doom and gloom put you into a catatonic funk.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 17 Jan. 2025
Things were going fair to middling with his candidacy until Biden’s catastrophic, catatonic debate performance in June, which caused a major Democratic freak-out and resulted in his grudging departure from the ticket and endorsement of Harris.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2024
Netto and Schindler take pains to point out the irony of Iris’ predicament: Iris has emerged from the emotionally catatonic state that she’s been in since the day of her son’s accident… just to wind up in a physically catatonic state at the site of her son’s accident.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 25 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for catatonic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for catatonic
Adjective
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One Redditor said their iPad now had a blank screen, but to be clear there hasn’t been an iPad update.—
David Phelan,
Forbes.com,
16 Aug. 2025
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For the outing at the California theme park, Cox wore an oversized white blouse with blank pants and sandals.—
Ingrid Vasquez,
People.com,
16 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Last week, the university eliminated more than 400 positions, half of which were already vacant.—
Kate Armanini,
Chicago Tribune,
5 Aug. 2025
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One of the buildings next door was evacuated, while the other was vacant.—
Chevall Pryce,
Baltimore Sun,
5 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Catatonic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/catatonic. Accessed 20 Aug. 2025.
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