Definition of unfeelingnext
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as in inanimate
lacking animate awareness or sensation she spoke politely even to the unfeeling virtual assistant on her phone

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 unfeeling One solution is to create more positive role models for AI systems—at present, the canon mostly comprises murderous and unfeeling robots, like HAL 9000 and the Terminator. Tharin Pillay, Time, 12 Mar. 2026 The truth is that state government is not some distant, unfeeling bureaucracy. John Atkinson, Chicago Tribune, 2 Mar. 2026 There’d be too much sympathy in watching this cookie get pulverized by unfeeling overlords. Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2026 For example, 1975’s Welfare carefully documents the hoops that working people had to jump through to obtain welfare benefits at New York’s Waverly Welfare Center, representing the government as an intractable and unfeeling force. Vikram Murthi, The Atlantic, 22 Feb. 2026 See All Example Sentences for unfeeling
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unfeeling
Adjective
  • Communism’s pure economic theory is now rarely practiced anywhere — even if ruthless leaders in hybrid capitalist economies like China and Russia have retained the authoritarian iron fists of their predecessors.
    Harmeet Kaur, CNN Money, 8 July 2026
  • Otherwise, Kail sticks closely to the template established for him, recreating every scene and sequence from the first movie with ruthless fidelity and adding essentially no departures of any significance.
    Wilson Chapman, IndieWire, 8 July 2026
Adjective
  • Relationships often suffer as people withdraw or feel emotionally numb.
    Sara Moniuszko, USA Today, 30 June 2026
  • Some doctors understandably get a bit numb to the pain of their patients.
    Lawrence Ingrassia, STAT, 26 June 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 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
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
Adjective
  • Audio from an emergency medical services dispatch suggests that McConnell, 84, was reported unconscious at his Washington residence in June, prompting an advanced life support response.
    Alyssa Goldberg, USA Today, 8 July 2026
  • McConnell was found unconscious the morning of June 14 and transported to a local hospital in an Advanced Life Support ambulance, according to Punchbowl News and the New York Post.
    Antonio Pequeño IV, Forbes.com, 7 July 2026
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
Adjective
  • Ed Lomena, the attorney representing the pilot — who asked not to be identified by name for fear of job repercussions — says his client was asleep when the creatures entered the room.
    Colson Thayer, PEOPLE, 1 July 2026
  • His attorney, Ed Lowena, said his client was asleep when the disturbance began.
    Brian Maass, CBS News, 30 June 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Unfeeling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unfeeling. Accessed 10 Jul. 2026.

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