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
- insipidity noun
- insipidly adverb
- insipidness noun
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.
One does wonder how the actors fishing while swapping such insipid dialogue don’t cross their leaders and spend most of the time untangling, before flying their plane into the middle of a Rocky Mountain thunderstorm.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 13, 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
Speaking after an insipid and goalless Manchester derby at Old Trafford on Sunday, Guardiola said it was not an issue for United but for the individuals involved.
From BBC • Apr. 6, 2025
An insipid mishmash of trite genre tropes, “Borderlands” is devoid of any real edge.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 9, 2024
By day she embroidered, read, or painted insipid watercolors around the house, under Nana’s approving glance, now that she could finally sleep in peace.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
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.
