1
as in unconscious
lacking animate awareness or sensation
the belief that God is immanent in all things, even insensate objects
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in ruthless
having or showing a lack of sympathy or tender feelings
an insensate boss who refuses to allow time off for funerals
Synonyms & Similar Words
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 insensate
The brain, like other internal organs, is insensate, its lack of sensory receptors attested by videos of virtuoso violinists who play on unfazed as neurosurgeons go to work inside their skulls.
—
Matthew Ponsford, WIRED, 19 Sep. 2024
But states have used midazolam alone — and at much higher doses — in executions since 2013, claiming the drug will render people insensate to pain before the administration of other lethal injection drugs.
—Lauren Gill, ProPublica, 29 Apr. 2023
Jerome Powell and his Federal Reserve colleagues are hardly insensate to the risk that their inflation-fighting actions might bring Mr. Trump back to power.
—Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 14 June 2022
Realigning themselves with sophomoric virtues, the stars sell their souls in accommodation to the insensate new era.
—Armond White, National Review, 28 Oct. 2020
Matthew Ponsford, WIRED, 19 Sep. 2024
But states have used midazolam alone — and at much higher doses — in executions since 2013, claiming the drug will render people insensate to pain before the administration of other lethal injection drugs.
—Lauren Gill, ProPublica, 29 Apr. 2023
Jerome Powell and his Federal Reserve colleagues are hardly insensate to the risk that their inflation-fighting actions might bring Mr. Trump back to power.
—Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 14 June 2022
Realigning themselves with sophomoric virtues, the stars sell their souls in accommodation to the insensate new era.
—Armond White, National Review, 28 Oct. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for insensate
Adjective
-
Officers responded to reports of an unconscious 42-year-old man lying in the grass near Cottonwood Creek Trail Friday evening.—
Elissa Jorgensen,
Dallas Morning News,
9 Mar. 2026
-
The panel watched footage of an unconscious 17-year-old girl being raped by Oren Alexander, which the public was not permitted to see.—
Molly Crane-Newman,
New York Daily News,
9 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Lydia, naturally, has her own reasons for pairing Agnes and Daisy together, evolving from a ruthless zealot and disciplinarian in Handmaid’s Tale into a kind of double agent looking to overthrow Gilead from within the hallowed halls of power in Testaments, as the finale set her up to do.—
Max Gao,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Mar. 2026
-
After enduring a tough patch in business, fate changes his course, turning him into El Serpiente, a ruthless political strategist.—
Anna Marie de la Fuente,
Variety,
3 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
The fabric maven muses about how inanimate things receive memories.—
Robert Sullivan,
Vogue,
16 Feb. 2026
-
Even Lander Lil, an inanimate bronze statue of a prairie dog located in Wyoming tasked by locals with a similar weather-prediction role, has a higher prediction rate than Phil, with 75% accuracy.—
Chris Barilla,
PEOPLE,
2 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Waltz lends a slimy charisma to the merciless SS colonel, who gets a satisfying comeuppance via carving knife.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
4 Mar. 2026
-
These are two of the most conniving, merciless people on television, and they’re bonded by the twin desire to be more like the other.—
Amanda Whiting,
Vulture,
23 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
The truth is that state government is not some distant, unfeeling bureaucracy.—
John Atkinson,
Chicago Tribune,
2 Mar. 2026
-
There’d be too much sympathy in watching this cookie get pulverized by unfeeling overlords.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
26 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
With a 15 percent slope and soils consisting of shattered rock and very stony loam with a small percentage of clay, the soil is low in organic matter and drains extremely well.—
Mike DeSimone,
Robb Report,
22 Feb. 2026
-
The sculptor, David Adickes, was an Army veteran who'd wanted his stony visages to gleam.—
Danielle Paquette The Washington Post,
Arkansas Online,
17 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
End these stupid, senseless wars.—
Dave Goldiner,
New York Daily News,
11 Mar. 2026
-
Except Valentin would then offer just one more drink and drug his dates senseless, officials familiar with a widening investigation into his behavior claim.—
Vivian Salama,
The Atlantic,
9 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
This is the result of years of callous mismanagement and broken promises.—
Staff Report,
Hartford Courant,
9 Feb. 2026
-
But German timidity before Israel’s moral blackmail only partly explains Habermas’s callous attitude toward the country’s Palestinian victims.—
Sean Williams,
Harpers Magazine,
27 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Insensate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/insensate. Accessed 12 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
