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

We speak of persons as susceptible or insusceptible to music as we speak of good and poor conductors of electricity; and the analogy implied here is particularly apt and striking.

From How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. Hints and Suggestions to Untaught Lovers of the Art by Krehbiel, Henry Edward

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

After a disease has been endemic among a people for many generations that people gradually becomes quite insusceptible to its effects and suffers much less from it than before.

From Psychotherapy by Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)

They knew Mrs. Hilary to be a muddled bigot, whose mind was stuffed with concrete instances and insusceptible of abstract reason.

From Dangerous Ages by Macaulay, Rose, Dame

It is insusceptible of rust, as gold and silver are, none of the acids affecting it, excepting the aqua regia.

From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1 by Randolph, Thomas Jefferson