insusceptible

American  

[in-suh-sep-tuh-buhl] / ˌɪn səˈsɛp tə bəl /

adjective

1. not susceptible; incapable of being influenced or affected (usually followed by of orto ).

   insusceptible of flattery; insusceptible to infection.

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insusceptible British  

/ ˌɪnsəˈsɛptəbəl /

adjective

1. not capable of being affected (by); not susceptible (to)

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Other Word Forms

• insusceptibility
  noun
• insusceptibly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of insusceptible

First recorded in 1595–1605; in- ³ + susceptible

Explanation

If you're insusceptible to something, you're unlikely to be harmed or affected by it. The comic book hero Superman is famously insusceptible to everything except for Kryptonite; it's the only substance to which he's vulnerable. If you've had the chicken pox vaccine, you'll be insusceptible to the chicken pox virus, and if you aren't interested in music, you're probablykrypto insusceptible to a particularly poignant, bittersweet melody that makes your friend cry. Kids who are insusceptible to TV commercials don't pay any attention to them (and don't beg their parents for the latest toys).

Example Sentences

The policeman with his taboo did make moral and social questions insusceptible to treatment in party platforms.

From A Preface to Politics by Lippmann, Walter

What has actually happened in the year which has since elapsed has shown that those hopes were not justified, those assurances insusceptible of being fulfilled.

From President Wilson's Addresses by Harper, George McLean

His soul, indurated by crime, was as insusceptible to the soothing influence of such aspects, as the cold rocky cavern where he had harbored, was impenetrable to the noonday blaze.

From Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia by Simms, William Gilmore

This belief is insusceptible of proof, but rests entirely upon our religious feelings and is rooted purely in our emotional life.

From Jewish Theology by Kohler, Kaufmann

The same advantage in a greater degree is obtained by vaccination, even in the exceptional instances in which it fails to render the person altogether insusceptible to the disease.

From The Mother's Manual of Children's Diseases by West, Charles