1
as in unconscious
lacking animate awareness or sensation
the belief that God is immanent in all things, even insensate objects
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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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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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
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The women were strangled and rendered unconscious during the attack.—
Ryan Murphy,
IndyStar,
3 Sep. 2025
-
Patients can be briefly roused—for example, to ask them to roll over or change a dressing—before falling unconscious again.—
RJ Mackenzie,
Popular Science,
3 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Hunted by the ruthless crime boss that Don worked for and learned all the boss’s sinister secrets — Perlman plays him — Don has a reason to seek redemption.—
Mike Fleming Jr,
Deadline,
5 Sep. 2025
-
Witness Alex Hales’ ruthless removal.—
Tim Ellis,
Forbes.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
The American flag is not a mere inanimate banner.—
Josh Hammer,
MSNBC Newsweek,
27 Aug. 2025
-
Thin bony fingers as inanimate as dry cigarette papers.—
Hazlitt,
Hazlitt,
16 July 2025
Adjective
-
In 1918, Bolshevik secret police forced Anastasia Romanov and her imperial family into a damp basement to face a merciless firing squad.—
Ashlee Conour,
Chicago Tribune,
2 Sep. 2025
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The lengthy, merciless caption is basically the rock equivalent of Miranda Priestly’s cerulean sweater takedown.—
Angie Martoccio,
Rolling Stone,
22 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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The greatest accusation levied against her is the crime of being an unfeeling mother.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
11 Aug. 2025
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Then, the men had to walk around as these unfeeling, aggressive, hyper-masculine creatures.—
Maureen Lee Lenker,
EW.com,
28 May 2025
Adjective
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No expensive meter running that is racking up hefty bills and stony fees.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
8 Aug. 2025
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But Bana is not as believable when asked to drop his stony demeanor and display vulnerability, a shortcoming that hampers his arc in the back half of the season.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
17 July 2025
Adjective
-
Many Iranians who hate their government nonetheless cheered the end of the war, and decried the senseless death of their countrymen at the hands of a faraway government whose concern for Iranian life was open to doubt.—
Graeme Wood,
The Atlantic,
2 Sep. 2025
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No, Task is most interested in serving up a drama about people in pain making their way through a world filled with senseless cruelty and overseen (depending on your religious beliefs) by an indifferent God.—
Angie Han,
HollywoodReporter,
28 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Tennant costars in The Thursday Murder Club as Ian Ventham, the callous, money-hungry co-owner of Coopers Chase.—
Randall Colburn,
EW.com,
28 Aug. 2025
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The New Yorker’s Talk writer was similarly blinkered and callous, treating Grey like a consenting partner and Chaplin as a dual victim, of his mother-in-law’s venality and of Middle America’s moral prejudices.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
25 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Insensate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/insensate. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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