1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

desensitized

adjective

as in ruthless
having or showing a lack of sympathy or tender feelings having lived through the horrors of war, the soldiers had seemingly become desensitized to virtually all human suffering

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of desensitized Although today’s audiences might be more desensitized to such gruesome scenes thanks to hyperrealistic special effects in modern horror movies, and the commonplace spread of graphic clips online, audiences of the ‘80s were reportedly traumatized and scandalized. — Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 14 Apr. 2026 While the effects of violent media on viewers are notoriously hard to study, some evidence suggests that some audiences can become desensitized to the real-world consequences of unhealthy and violent content. — Cynthia Chris, The Conversation, 19 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for desensitized
  1. ruthless
  2. merciless
  3. stony
  4. insensitive
  5. callous
  6. hard
Adjective
  • Within hours, their yacht vanishes, Matt is abducted by a gang of ruthless pirates led by Langbore (Copley), and paradise becomes a trap.
    — Alex Ritman, Variety, 14 Sep. 2026
  • Arsenal created more than enough to help themselves to a bunch of goals in Naples, only to get stuck in anti-ruthless mode.
    — Amy Lawrence, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of ruthless
Adjective
  • Cora, the granddaughter of a woman kidnapped from West Africa and sold into slavery, flees her captor’s plantation, plunging her into the book’s alternate steampunk reality where she is pursued by the merciless slave catcher Ridgeway.
    — David Faris, TheWeek, 16 Sep. 2026
  • But the movie very much belongs to Trinca and Bruni Tedeschi, just as Anna belongs to the merciless stranger.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of merciless
Adjective
  • Oscar Wilde, for example, reposes beneath a hulking deity whose iconoclastic castration, back in 1961, did little to restrain pilgrims seeking to smear red lips across his stony physique.
    — Emily Cox, ARTnews.com, 22 May 2026
  • Instead of looking like a sleek urban loft, the room can quickly start to feel cold, stony, and impersonal.
    — Natasha Bazika, Martha Stewart, 9 May 2026
Definition of stony
Adjective
  • Besides being undignified, such honesty does not save one from the rude and insensitive.
    — Judith Martin, Mercury News, 3 Sep. 2026
  • As documented in a pair of articles published earlier this month in the daily newspaper Der Standard, the controversy is wrapped up in the insensitive way in which the show is being marketed.
    — Leigh Anne Miller, ARTnews.com, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of insensitive
Adjective
  • Then with Lee, in the timeline closest to our present day, her heartbreaking, hard-to-stomach testimony means nothing to a callous judge who sentences her to death three times over.
    — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Worth putting a pin in Catherine’s reaction to Lamb’s callous reference to Charles Partner, the late First Desk chief and turncoat who employed Catherine as his personal assistant.
    — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of callous
Adjective
  • In top cities like Austin, Miami and Nashville, cash-flowing properties can be harder to find.
    — Justin Donald, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Two blue and yellow humanoid robots attempted to beat each other up with punches twice as hard as Mike Tyson’s.
    — Matthew Martin, semafor.com, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of hard

Browse Nearby Words

deselects
desensitized
desert
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Desensitized.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desensitized. Accessed 20 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of volition

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

Words from the 'Odyssey'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 18
See More

Popular

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
crayons-in-a-circle
Guess the Color Quiz Questions that use the whole box of crayons.
See All