insensate

[in-sen-seyt, -sit]

adjective

1. not endowed with sensation; inanimate.

   insensate stone.

   Synonyms: inorganic, lifeless

2. without human feeling or sensitivity; cold; cruel; brutal.

   Synonyms: insensible

3. without sense, understanding, or judgment; foolish.

   Synonyms: dumb, witless, senseless, irrational, stupid

insensate

/ -sɪt, ɪnˈsɛnseɪt /

adjective

1. lacking sensation or consciousness

2. insensitive; unfeeling

3. foolish; senseless

Other Word Forms

• insensately adverb
• insensateness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of insensate¹

First recorded in 1510–20, insensate is from the Late Latin word insēnsātus irrational. See in- ³, sensate

Example Sentences

She is under general anaesthesia: unconscious, insensate and rendered completely still by a blend of drugs that induce deep sleep, block memory, blunt pain and temporarily paralyse her muscles.

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Speaking personally, the terror-fueled adrenaline dump that would have ensued after I read that very first “Do not answer” would have reduced me to an insensate lump.

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It was reptilian, insensate, Coleridge’s monster of “motiveless malignity.”

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In the highest-profile case, four Oklahoma prisoners contended that using midazolam constituted cruel and unusual punishment because it “fails to render a person insensate to pain.”

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“But if midazolam is not capable of maintaining that insensate state, we may well be producing the same feeling in the person being executed.”

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