Definition of senselessnext
1
as in unconscious
having lost consciousness she collapsed, senseless, after hitting her head

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2
3
as in dumb
not having or showing an ability to absorb ideas readily he may be a little absentminded, but he's really not as senseless as he seems

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4
5
as in inanimate
lacking animate awareness or sensation even the senseless sea seemed determined to swamp the storm-tossed ship

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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 senseless The tragicomic, by contrast, elevates mixed affect as an ethical experience of a senseless world. Eugenie Brinkema, ARTnews.com, 14 June 2026 As a ruthless hitman (Javier Bardem) tries to track him down, the local sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) tries to make sense of it all and faces an existential crisis about the senseless violence of the world today. Eric Farwell, Entertainment Weekly, 12 June 2026 The boy’s family and county leaders are renewing their plea for witnesses to come forward, saying justice for a child lost to senseless street violence is long overdue. Seamus Bozeman follow, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2026 The moves were senseless, short-sighted and emblematic of everything wrong with professional sports in this day and age. Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 19 May 2026 See All Example Sentences for senseless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for senseless
Adjective
  • East Hampton Town police responded to a 911 call from a man reporting a woman unconscious on a boat docked around midnight the day she was pronounced dead, according to last year’s statement.
    Matt Lavietes, NBC news, 11 Aug. 2026
  • The Enneagram is a leadership consciousness and process map that reveals our gifts and unconscious patterns that can limit our dash story.
    Catherine Bell, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026
Adjective
  • Jared Sternberg, founder of Gondwana Ecotours, argues that comparing Alaska to Phoenix is meaningless.
    Christopher Elliott, USA Today, 7 Aug. 2026
  • Sure, Thursday’s Pro Football Hall of Fame game between the Panthers and Arizona Cardinals was nothing more than a meaningless exhibition in which few, if any, actual starters played.
    Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2026
Adjective
  • Perhaps in writing it, Salinger was trying to negotiate whether his remarkable survival through some of the war’s worst gauntlets could be chalked up to dumb luck, or divine intervention.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 10 Aug. 2026
  • Approaching the plant, there are no telltale dumb-bell silhouettes on the horizon signaling its presence.
    Ramy Inocencio, CBS News, 5 Aug. 2026
Adjective
  • All of this is to say that where liabilities are involved, don't be penny wise and pound foolish.
    Jay Adkisson, Forbes.com, 11 Aug. 2026
  • As some of us will inevitably succumb to its grand and growing illusion, the rest may get the opportunity to find the key to understanding how so many others could be fooled and so foolish.
    Letters to the Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 9 Aug. 2026
Adjective
  • Then, in European culture, Christianity appeared, a religion which made an astonishing discovery, namely, that the primary cause for everything—humans, animals, nature, fertility, the inanimate world, the universe, the cosmos—could be concentrated into one single point.
    Merve Emre, New Yorker, 28 June 2026
  • As a result, the concept of animal rights was non-existent and people were free to treat animals like any other inanimate property.
    Rob Toews, Forbes.com, 22 June 2026
Adjective
  • The case that American leadership in this technology carries a genuine security dimension has never looked stupid to me.
    Jason Snyder, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2026
  • The women are in stupid costumes (Heather Gay is dressed as a leprechaun at one point) and yelling at one another for yet-unknown reasons.
    Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 6 Aug. 2026
Adjective
  • Every season of Strange New Worlds has featured at least one episode that emphasizes Star Trek’s silly side (and this may not be the last such outing in season four).
    Keith Phipps, Vulture, 6 Aug. 2026
  • The silly yellow fruit that became a part of their culture was freighted, from the start, with suggestive meaning.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 Aug. 2026
Adjective
  • This insensate gaze is one that cannot be returned, as Jacques Lacan observed of the camera pointed at him during his performative lecture Télévision, recorded in 1973 and broadcast on prime-time TV in France.
    Jan Tumlir, Artforum, 5 Aug. 2026
  • 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

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Cite this Entry

“Senseless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/senseless. Accessed 13 Aug. 2026.

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