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
Other high-dollar attendees who posed for photographs with Obama and Biden described Biden as slow and almost catatonic.
—
Jake Tapper, New Yorker, 13 May 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
Jake Tapper, New Yorker, 13 May 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
-
The bad column was virtually blank.—
Jay Glennie,
Deadline,
16 Oct. 2025
-
Taasa looks at him in blank, exhausted disgust and then looks straight into the camera.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
14 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
While all this is going on, the rest of the gang is splitting up to find Marie and warn her about Annabeth’s nightmare-premonition of her bloodied, motionless body.—
Ben Rosenstock,
Vulture,
15 Oct. 2025
-
In the eastbound direction, between the queue of cars and congregation of responders, lay a motionless helicopter, not in the sky, but on the ground; not right-side-up but on its roof.—
Jake Goodrick,
Sacbee.com,
11 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The Warriors' 15th and final roster spot will reportedly remain vacant until the journeyman guard is brought back to the team.—
Valentina Martinez,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 Oct. 2025
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In August, the city laid off 169 workers and slashed hundreds of vacant positions to make up for part of that shortfall.—
Elliott Wenzler,
Denver Post,
18 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Catatonic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/catatonic. Accessed 21 Oct. 2025.
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