as in apathy
a lack of emotion or emotional expressiveness
the prisoner exhibited the numbness of someone who had spent more years behind bars than he could remember
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of numbness
Soon, the sensation of numbness spread up the entire left side of my body.
—
Lucinda Rosenfeld, New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2025
The patient presented with localized problems with brain or nerve function, such as weakness, numbness, trouble speaking, or loss of coordination in a specific part of the body, rather than a general symptom like headache or dizziness.
—New Atlas, 25 Oct. 2025
White disappears completely into the role without skirting parody, portraying the exhausted hitmaker as startled by his own numbness, blanked out and unsure of what to do next.
—Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 24 Oct. 2025
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, CMT causes a range of sensory and motor symptoms, including numbness, tingling, pain, muscle weakness and atrophy — deterioration in cells, tissues, and organs.
—Diana Leyva, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Oct. 2025
On long flights, your legs tend to swell, leading to discomfort, cramping, and even numbness—but a good pair of compression leggings, like this pick from CompressionZ, can prevent those symptoms.
—Hillary Maglin, Travel + Leisure, 23 Oct. 2025
Yet according to Peck’s film, recognizing that reality can resemble Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece has led to numbness, rather than meaningful change.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2025
The numbness that started in my left hand quickly spread to more of the left side of my body.
—Michelle Maves, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Oct. 2025
The star has been open about her symptoms, including numbness and tingling, before her diagnosis, and found comfort in finding a community.
—Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 10 Oct. 2025
Lucinda Rosenfeld, New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2025
The patient presented with localized problems with brain or nerve function, such as weakness, numbness, trouble speaking, or loss of coordination in a specific part of the body, rather than a general symptom like headache or dizziness.
—New Atlas, 25 Oct. 2025
White disappears completely into the role without skirting parody, portraying the exhausted hitmaker as startled by his own numbness, blanked out and unsure of what to do next.
—Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 24 Oct. 2025
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, CMT causes a range of sensory and motor symptoms, including numbness, tingling, pain, muscle weakness and atrophy — deterioration in cells, tissues, and organs.
—Diana Leyva, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Oct. 2025
On long flights, your legs tend to swell, leading to discomfort, cramping, and even numbness—but a good pair of compression leggings, like this pick from CompressionZ, can prevent those symptoms.
—Hillary Maglin, Travel + Leisure, 23 Oct. 2025
Yet according to Peck’s film, recognizing that reality can resemble Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece has led to numbness, rather than meaningful change.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2025
The numbness that started in my left hand quickly spread to more of the left side of my body.
—Michelle Maves, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Oct. 2025
The star has been open about her symptoms, including numbness and tingling, before her diagnosis, and found comfort in finding a community.
—Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 10 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for numbness
Noun
-
On the Amazon Prime Video postgame recap of the Lakers-Grizzlies clash, former six-time All-Star power forward Blake Griffin took umbrage with Morant's occasional mid-game bouts with apathy.—
Alex Kirschenbaum,
MSNBC Newsweek,
5 Nov. 2025
-
Ross better hit a home run on his next hires, adding executives and a head coach who injects hope into the veins of this fan base like Parcells once did, because at this rate Dolphins apathy will become the constant.—
Omar Kelly
November 4,
Miami Herald,
4 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
By upholding his virtue and revealing the emptiness of evil, Ignatius Maloyan earned sainthood, joining the enduring Communion of witnesses.—
Jenni Fink,
MSNBC Newsweek,
31 Oct. 2025
-
Critics see gleaming towers rising from desert sand and detect not ambition but emptiness — a city with an unlimited line of credit, but without a soul.—
Bobby Ghosh,
Time,
29 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Those sacs of air fill with fluid or pus, causing a cough with phlegm or pus, fever, chills and trouble breathing, according to the clinic.—
Rebecca Cohen,
NBC news,
16 Oct. 2025
-
With just enough codeine to wash the phlegm away, Veeze folds slapstick one-liners into audacious flexes like origami.—
Pitchfork,
Pitchfork,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Their works push back against the coldness of technology, asserting presence, autonomy, and creative resistance.—
Okla Jones,
Essence,
24 Sep. 2025
-
Thematically, this episode is awash in the color blue itself, which many fans interpret as symbolizing coldness and detachment from the music industry.—
Jeff Ihaza,
Rolling Stone,
23 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
This début novel chronicles a young woman’s unravelling with ethnographic detachment.—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
-
There’s often an arch detachment where the singer tries to pretend as though they haven’t actually been poisoned by being online themselves.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
30 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Numbness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/numbness. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
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