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

These grave questions are as yet insusceptible of answer.

From The Teacher Essays and Addresses on Education by Palmer, Alice Freeman

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

The first of these is, that yellow fever is strictly a self-limited disease, and therefore is insusceptible of jugulation.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

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

It remains as a pure deduction from the philosophical conception of Monism, incapable of proof, insusceptible of refutation.

From The Arena Volume 18, No. 93, August, 1897 by Various