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 The insensitive promotion was swiftly canceled, leading to the CEO's dismissal, a public apology, and mandatory history training for 24,000 employees. — Roger Dooley, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026 Even Hauser can’t rescue this culturally insensitive, stereotype-perpetuating nonsense. — Jon O'Brien, Vulture, 26 June 2026 Frankly, its terribly insensitive to hold a press conference while the man is dying. — Rachel Royster, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 19 June 2026 But the post has been condemned both inside Colombia and abroad as insensitive. — Alfie Pannell, Miami Herald, 8 June 2026 See All Example Sentences for insensitive

Recent Examples of Synonyms for insensitive

Adjective

Neill was magnetic as the ruthless CI Major Chester Campbell in Peaky Blinders—an antagonist and romantic rival of Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby.

— ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 15 July 2026
Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé and Michael Olise, who has a tournament-high five assists, were also kept quiet by the ruthless Spaniards.

— Mark Hodge, NBC news, 15 July 2026

Definition of ruthless

Adjective

The poem that precedes it, the Iliad, is a cruel and beautiful work, the ultimate story of war; the Odyssey has its warlike passages, but its central energies seem almost commonplace beside the merciless fury of Achilles.

— David Denby, New Yorker, 21 June 2026
Humility is the posture; the standard is merciless.

— Luis E. Romero, Forbes.com, 19 June 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

Work told her to log on anyway Getting rid of any interventions that require a parent’s presence in order for the baby to fall back asleep – including rocking, singing and bouncing — is a good trick.

— Gavin Escott, USA Today, 16 July 2026
Her husband was asleep in bed, deeply so, despite an open curtain.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 13 July 2026

Definition of asleep

Adjective

Trump’s proponents may argue these definitions are ageing, and precedents have been set in recent years that leave the battlefield a wholly more callous place.

— Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 17 July 2026
These structures were regionally and culturally inspired, and largely destroyed during rapid and callous colonization.

— Elizabeth Fazzare, Architectural Digest, 4 July 2026

Definition of callous

Adjective

Readers can judge Jane and me, deciding that one of us was unfeeling or uncomprehending.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 13 July 2026
As Micah so nicely puts it, there’s a narrative magnetism to Pitman’s repo encounters, many of which play out as micro-dramas of people in crisis confronting an embodied messenger of the great, unfeeling, deeply unfair American financial system.

— Austin Elias-de Jesus, New Yorker, 22 June 2026