insipid
Americanadjective
-
without distinctive, interesting, or stimulating qualities; vapid.
an insipid personality.
- Synonyms:
- uninteresting, dull, flat
-
without sufficient taste to be pleasing, as food or drink; bland.
a rather insipid soup.
- Synonyms:
- bland, tasteless, uninteresting, dull, flat
adjective
-
lacking spirit; boring
-
lacking taste; unpalatable
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of insipid
1610–20; < Latin insipidus, equivalent to in- in- 3 + -sipidus, combining form of sapidus sapid
Explanation
Something insipid is lacking in flavor or interest. You'll probably find the generic poems inside of greeting cards insipid. Insipid comes from the Latin insipidus, the opposite of sapidus which means flavorful. Because spices and salts are left out, hospital food is usually considered insipid. The most common use of the word is in a metaphorical sense for dull or flat. You might think that your goody-two-shoes cousin is the most insipid girl you've ever met.
Vocabulary lists containing insipid
Grade 10, List 4
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Negatives with "in"
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"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
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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.
In the meantime, there’s a lot of unwieldy comic commotion involving a missing corpse, a tweaking, naked Dwight and enough insipid TV sibling bickering to clog the airwaves for a decade.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
But more often than not, the combination comes off forced; corny at best, insipid at worst.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
Such austerity only whetted my childhood fondness for concoctions that now make me wince: grape soda, root beer, orange Fanta, even a hideous insipid confection known as cream soda.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
He hopes a deeper relationship with European neighbours can help fire up Britain's insipid economy and inject life into a premiership that has so far been deeply unpopular with the public.
From Barron's ● Jan. 18, 2026
This seems to placate her for the moment and I tell the same story to Elizabeth, with a few more details to Hilly, pinching my arm to bear her insipid smile.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
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.
