motionless
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- motionlessly adverb
- motionlessness noun
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.
When he zoomed in with his camera, he realized the motionless ants were covered with tiny cone ants.
From Science Daily • Apr. 14, 2026
But here in Southern California, something more is in the air: a dense, motionless tsunami of something foul and inexplicable.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026
Sharpe tumbled during her second run, losing her skis and poles and lying motionless on the snow.
From Barron's • Feb. 19, 2026
Reducing McCullum's coaching to its most recognisable image - feet up, sunglasses in place, watching motionless from a balcony somewhere in the world - would always be wrong.
From BBC • Feb. 8, 2026
We lay motionless for a long, long time.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
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.
