as in numbness
a lack of emotion or emotional expressiveness
though she always acts so blasé about everything, I think her air of affectlessness is largely put on
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for affectlessness
Noun
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Signs of a stroke can be identified by sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg; sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech; issues with eyesight; loss of balance, dizziness, and difficulty walking; and severe headache with no identifiable cause.—
KiMi Robinson,
USA Today,
14 Apr. 2026 -
In sticking through these 30 minutes, numbness begins to feel aspirational.—
Joshua Minsoo Kim,
Pitchfork,
13 Apr. 2026
Noun
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And if salt and water start to move, so, too, does the phlegm that has been sitting dehydrated in the lungs of CF patients.—
Courtney Crowder,
USA Today,
10 Apr. 2026
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Smelling of rotting grapes, the phlegm is musty and acetone-tinged, like a decanter of red wine forgotten in a dark kitchen corner after a dinner party, left to turn into vinegar.—
Courtney Crowder,
Des Moines Register,
15 Mar. 2026
Noun
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He was supposed to be the antidote to the apathy.—
Dieter Kurtenbach,
Mercury News,
17 Apr. 2026
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The growing apathy toward big-screen entertainment was also owed to the patina of all-American wholesomeness that studios imposed on their stables of stars, and the nothing-to-see-here style of movie journalism was wearing thin.—
Joshua John Miller,
Vanity Fair,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Inner emptiness has always been a fixation of Ye.—
Kieran Press-Reynolds,
Pitchfork,
1 Apr. 2026
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While fans would have surely loved to get any of these songs over the past five years in lieu of the chaos of 2020s-era Ye, there’s still an emptiness at the heart of Bully.—
Jeff Ihaza,
Rolling Stone,
31 Mar. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Affectlessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/affectlessness. Accessed 22 Apr. 2026.
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