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

Relevance

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 Video of the incident was widely circulated on social media platforms like X, with Gibson condemned for his insensitive actions. — Zack Sharf, Variety, 31 Aug. 2026 Summary Recent marketing controversies, including Callaway and Good Good Golf's offensive ad and Target's insensitive Halloween costume, highlight significant failures in brand approval processes. — Sonia Thompson, Forbes.com, 28 Aug. 2026 Other retailers have also pulled merchandise that critics deemed racially insensitive, discriminatory or offensive after public backlash and social media protests. — Star Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 25 Aug. 2026 So have other terms considered insensitive, such as master/slave and blackhat/whitehat. — Jo MacKiewicz, The Conversation, 25 Aug. 2026 See All Example Sentences for insensitive

Recent Examples of Synonyms for insensitive

Adjective

Joe has always been ruthless, but never quite as tunnel-visioned in her motivations.

— Andy Andersen, Vulture, 20 Sep. 2026
Therefore, if Question 3 passes in this fall’s elections, Annapolis Democrats will forever be able to engage in ruthless gerrymandering to ensure that Maryland never elects another Republican or independent to Congress.

— Chris West, Baltimore Sun, 19 Sep. 2026

Definition of ruthless

Adjective

At one point in the swim, her hand went directly into a compass jellyfish, leaving it numb for a while.

— Rachel Roberts, Idaho Statesman, 18 Sep. 2026
On one Anderson sack late in the first quarter, Allen kicked his feet in agony and later revealed the hit made his left arm go numb.

— Tim Graham, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2026

Definition of numb

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

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

One burns the only copy of her sister’s precious handwritten manuscript; at least two others set houses on fire, one while her unsuspecting parents are still asleep inside.

— Hillary Busis, Vanity Fair, 25 Sep. 2026
Before couples give up and split into separate rooms, a growing lineup of snoring solutions is trying to keep both people in the same bed and both people actually asleep.

— Lauren Schuster, Sacbee.com, 24 Sep. 2026

Definition of asleep

Adjective

His Lamb goes from a brash Yorkshire showman to a callous profiteer of human vice and misery, his cheeky smile becoming a vicious snarl.

— Joe Reid, Vulture, 21 Sep. 2026
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

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