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
Popular on Variety But a series of mysterious occurrences here and elsewhere in New England — the disappearances of children who later turn up, physically intact yet near-catatonic — grows more immediate once Ben gets pulled under during a night swim.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 3 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
Popular on Variety But a series of mysterious occurrences here and elsewhere in New England — the disappearances of children who later turn up, physically intact yet near-catatonic — grows more immediate once Ben gets pulled under during a night swim.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 3 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for catatonic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for catatonic
Adjective
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In their place were mostly blank walls and eggshell hues.—
Graham Hillard,
The Washington Examiner,
5 Sep. 2025
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And for several seemingly interminable minutes, POTUS is absent, his video screen in the Situation Room a blank square.—
Stephanie Zacharek,
Time,
3 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Not at all motionless essence, but endless motion.—
Luisa Zargani,
Footwear News,
3 Sep. 2025
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The video, which bears a watermark suggesting it was livestreamed on the video platform Kick, showed Jackson straddling Smith before repeatedly punching him in the face and the side of his head, even when Smith was lying motionless.—
Ben Morse,
CNN Money,
1 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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DeSantis appointed his former Chief of Staff James Uthmeier to the vacant attorney general post in February, giving him an incumbent-like advantage for the 2026 election even though voters did not pick him for the job.—
Alexandra Glorioso,
Miami Herald,
5 Sep. 2025
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Even Roosevelt, the city’s most cherished school, has been vacant since 2019 and fallen into disrepair.—
Carole Carlson,
Chicago Tribune,
5 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Catatonic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/catatonic. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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