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
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
But Folie à Deux uses Arthur’s catatonic depression to emphasize what his path to stardom really was: a killing spree that landed him in jail and well on his way to being executed by the state.
—Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge, 4 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for catatonic
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
But Folie à Deux uses Arthur’s catatonic depression to emphasize what his path to stardom really was: a killing spree that landed him in jail and well on his way to being executed by the state.
—Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge, 4 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for catatonic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for catatonic
Adjective
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The first Tron had played out as a series of face-offs featuring glowing figures against a black background, replicating the blank environment of an arcade screen.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
27 June 2025
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Wear it as a blank canvas, or switch things up with a statement belt.—
Catie Pusateri,
Glamour,
26 June 2025
Adjective
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In 1870, Mississippi legislators voted 81 to 15 to elect Revels to the Senate to finish the term of one of the state’s two U.S Senate seats, which had been left vacant since the Civil War.—
Bea L. Hines,
Miami Herald,
19 June 2025
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Earlier this month, Udoka was the subject of interest from the New York Knicks for their vacant head coaching position, one that the Rockets vehemently shut down.—
Kelly Iko,
New York Times,
19 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Catatonic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/catatonic. Accessed 2 Jul. 2025.
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