motionless
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of motionless
Explanation
If you're motionless, you're completely still, not moving a muscle. Your barber might instruct you to remain motionless while he trims the hair around your ears. Anything that's motionless doesn't move — a statue is motionless, and your bike is motionless lying in the driveway until you climb on it and start pedaling. Photographs are motionless, while video records movement. Your new puppy might be a constantly wiggling, jumping ball of motion until she becomes exhausted and falls sound asleep, motionless. Motion, or movement, comes from a Latin root, motionem, "a movement" or "an emotion."
Vocabulary lists containing motionless
Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 4
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"The Woman in the Snow" and "Rosa Parks"
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English Language Development Texts, Unit 2
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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.
Campbell, a fourth-year player who made his first Pro Bowl last season, was lying face down and motionless on the field after tackling Vikings tight end T.J.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026
The team also conducted experiments to determine whether the spiders were genuinely asleep rather than simply sitting motionless.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 27, 2026
“Across the bay the yachts of the city’s rich lingered motionless all summer, never seeming to arrive or depart.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
"Fuel is unavailable, there are huge queues everywhere," he told AFP from his motionless Toyota sedan after a one-and-a-half hour drive from the capital Ulaanbaatar.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
All the women, or rather the witches, were now sitting motionless in their chairs and staring as though hypnotised at somebody who had suddenly appeared on the platform.
From "The Witches" by Roald Dahl
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
