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.
Was it an insensitive thing to say, in retrospect?
From MarketWatch • Jul. 1, 2026
Some social-media users described Winters’s language in the media meeting as insensitive, as did a former president of Singapore, one of Standard Chartered’s biggest markets.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
Farage said he liked Parry and had known him "for a very long time", but that his comments were "crass, insensitive, hurtful and wrong".
From BBC • Mar. 24, 2026
It is naturally insensitive to polarization, highly stable, and allows waveguides to be written in three dimensions with minimal signal loss.
From Science Daily • Mar. 24, 2026
Or they were chips from imaginary skeletons; lost virgin souls; pieces of pretty, insensitive ice; their loveliness an untouchable joke.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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.
