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

Derived Forms

• inˈsensately, adverb
• inˈsensateness, noun

Other Words From

• in·sensate·ly adverb
• in·sensate·ness 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

He was “overwhelmed by the feeling” that “the Suffolk expanses” had “shrunk once and for all to a single, blind, insensate spot.”

From The Daily Beast

Cease, then, to love me with this insensate fever which wrecks the nights of your people, and love me as I love you.

From Project Gutenberg

But what arguments will these emissaries advance in order to rouse the masses to these insensate migrations?

From Project Gutenberg

Out of this insensate hell come the impossible statues that grin about our cities.

From Project Gutenberg

They tumbled him aboard, where he lay in an insensate heap, drooling spit and making incoherent, bubbling noises.

From Project Gutenberg

He forgot even what share her mother might claim; not to mention what in her might belong to the Sum of Things, the insensate Pan.

From Project Gutenberg