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 stupid
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 Despite a ticking clock that seemingly guarantees the girl’s senseless death will be discarded as a cold case, Noelle is determined to uncover the truth. Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 19 June 2026 This country is grieving too many senseless and violent deaths and shootings. Zack Sharf, Variety, 17 June 2026 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 See All Example Sentences for senseless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for senseless
Adjective
  • Another of the crew, a South Korean, was discovered unconscious by coast guard rescuers before being sent to a hospital on the mainland and declared dead there, the coast guard said.
    ABC News, ABC News, 2 Sep. 2026
  • The massage therapist was found unconscious on July 30 near the intersection of 28th Street and Prospect Avenue, according to Capt.
    Eleanor Nash, Kansas City Star, 2 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • The grand scale of cosmic time reminds her (and us) that social mores and strictures are tiny, meaningless things, that what matters is passion and freedom.
    Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 4 Sep. 2026
  • The world’s increasingly pro-Chinese attitude is not meaningless.
    Adam Y. Liu, Foreign Affairs, 2 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • No one, in my opinion, comes close to this selfish, foul-mouthed and stupid showman.
    Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Our business is stupid, but actors are the bomb / From Martindale to Milioti, my dad and my mom.
    Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 8 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • That game is too important, and holding someone back for a hypothetical Game 3 might be foolish regardless.
    Matt Gelb, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2026
  • But Americans would be foolish to think that Washington is anywhere near solving this problem.
    Doug Beck, Foreign Affairs, 18 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
  • In Erasmus’s view, cutting and pasting still basically yields a copy, and a very dumb one to boot.
    Mario Carpo, Artforum, 1 Sep. 2026
  • America’s Semiquincentennial was celebrated across the country this summer with big, dumb, gluttonous fun.
    Jessica Winter, New Yorker, 21 Aug. 2026
Adjective
  • That was a valuable lesson as the previous season, silly errors and lapses in concentration led to the side conceding goals that hamstrung their title ambitions.
    Art de Roché, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
  • Seen as silly, shrunken, and impractical, it’s considered the full-sugar Coca-Cola of jackets—all empty calories, no nutritional value.
    Irene Richardson, InStyle, 9 Sep. 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 12 Sep. 2026.

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