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

One is, to use non-humanized lymph, since the lower animals are insusceptible to syphilis.1 This is simple.

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

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

But the expression "all Indians," besides being insusceptible of methodical classification, involves hearsay, which is not the kind of authority desired in a serious study.

From Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-1880, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 263-552 by Mallery, Garrick

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

One-thousandth of a drop of virulent anthrax blood invariably killed the guinea-pig, while it left the rabbit unharmed.2 Klein has never found a rabbit insusceptible.

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