INSENSITIVE Synonyms: 136 Similar and Opposite Words

insensitive

adjective

(ˌ)in-ˈsen(t)-s(ə-)tiv

Definition of insensitive

as in ruthless

having or showing a lack of sympathy or tender feelings an insensitive remark about his deceased wife that was incredibly rude

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in numb

lacking in sensation or feeling fingers rendered insensitive by the cold

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 insensitive Three of the soccer players, including Yang Min-hyuk, who assisted the winning goal against Japan, made comments that were viewed as insensitive. — ABC News, 7 Oct. 2026 Multiple professional athletes spoke out in response, calling the video insensitive to those impacted by CTE. — Lucy Feldman, Time, 30 Sep. 2026 But experts say such responses can come off as insensitive, judgmental, dismissive and guilting. — Kristen Rogers, CNN Money, 28 Sep. 2026 Screenshots of an account appearing to belong to Kirk Thomson, who is running for Area 2, were posted to Reddit and show the use of the insensitive remarks. — Camryn Dadey, Sacbee.com, 22 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for insensitive

Recent Examples of Synonyms for insensitive

Adjective

Why would Trump choose to support Putin in his ruthless efforts in Ukraine?

— Tom Jurkowsky, Baltimore Sun, 2 Nov. 2026
The stump itself won’t damage buried water lines, per se, but the roots can be ruthless with pipes.

— Steven John, Architectural Digest, 29 Oct. 2026

Definition of ruthless

Adjective

To live in truth here, now, today is to resist the forces that would like nothing more than to isolate, numb, and commodify us.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 26 Oct. 2026
Halfway through my hands and feet went numb, then felt like fire, and then contorted into strange positions like lobster claws.

— Kate Berlant, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of numb

Adjective

Like her spiritual kin Williams and Eleanor, Laila is somewhere in her mid-20s, a cheerful and judgmental motormouth, and a dab hand at merciless, quick-draw gunfights.

— Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 5 Nov. 2026
It would be seen as a work of merciless autofiction in the vein of Karl Ove Knausgaard, and it would be discussed, as his books are, as aggressive, antisocial, and spiteful.

— B. D. McClay, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of merciless

Adjective

When Bill’s older brother Henry (Barry Ward) finds the pianist in numbed solitude in his dingy apartment, Bill has canceled all his upcoming gigs, saying Scotty cannot be replaced.

— David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 13 Feb. 2026
Ingber also notes the numbed response to these strikes from much of the American public, something that, in part, may come from the routine nature of these drone strikes as something that the nation has become desensitized to dropping bombs on enemies.

— Rebecca Schneid, Time, 21 Oct. 2025

Definition of numbed

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

When his mother was murdered just outside her home, Justin was only 5 years old and asleep in his bedroom.

— Brianna Zigler, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Nov. 2026
On the other side of the bed was me, in my cozy pajamas, asleep under a white blanket with my head also turned to the right.

— Jenny Hughes, The Spruce, 29 Oct. 2026

Definition of asleep

Adjective

This—along with the callous abandonment of trans rights by Democratic politicians from Gavin Newsom in California to James Talarico in Texas—will hurt the Democrats’ ability to turn out would-be voters on the left, especially among the young.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 22 Oct. 2026
The film, based on interviews with 24 anonymous members of Israeli military intelligence and soldiers, accuses Israel of callous disregard for Palestinian civilian life in its war in Gaza.

— Matthew Carey, Deadline, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of callous

Adjective

Civilizations could have risen to their zenith and crumbled in the time our micrometeoroid spent traversing the unfeeling expanse of interplanetary space, but its demise lasted but a fraction of a second.

— Anthony Wood, Space.com, 21 July 2026
Readers can judge Jane and me, deciding that one of us was unfeeling or uncomprehending.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 13 July 2026