insensitive
Americanadjective
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deficient in human sensibility, acuteness of feeling, or consideration; unfeeling; callous.
an insensitive person.
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not physically sensitive.
insensitive skin.
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not affected by physical or chemical agencies or influences.
insensitive to light.
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not readily responsive or aware.
insensitive to the needs of the peasants.
adjective
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lacking sensitivity; unfeeling
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lacking physical sensation
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not sensitive (to) or affected (by)
insensitive to radiation
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of insensitive
Explanation
When you're insensitive, you're not feeling something. You can be insensitive to the weather or other people's problems. This word has two meanings that are closely related. When your foot is asleep, it's insensitive or numb — you can't feel your friend poking at it. When you get really cold, you can become insensitive to pain. In the other sense, insensitive means the opposite of caring and sympathetic — you're insensitive to other people's feelings. If you make a joke about your friend's bad haircut when you know she's embarrassed about it, you're being insensitive.
Vocabulary lists containing insensitive
Out of My Mind
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"The Perils of Indifference," Vocabulary from the speech
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Game Changer
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Fischthal apologized to the student in an email and set up a private discussion online about the issue that she titled "Insensitive Language."
From Fox News • May 15, 2021
Insensitive or overly intrusive interviewing can quickly retrigger trauma, yet many of those who agreed to speak to us were desperate for their stories to be heard.
From The Guardian • Jul. 5, 2018
In the ’80s, the Brown University student Jeff Shesol’s “Doonesbury”-esque campus comic strip, “Thatch,” introduced a cape-wearing vigilante called Politically Correct Person, who faced off against his archenemy, Insensitive Man.
From New York Times • Jul. 19, 2016
Insensitive comments are frustrating, but at least they’re identifiable.
From Slate • Jun. 30, 2014
Insensitive to this change of meaning, scholars frequently translate the word experimentum in Latin texts as ‘experiment’, thus often giving a totally false impression of its meaning, which is commonly ‘experience’.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
