torpor
Americannoun
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torpors
plural
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sluggish inactivity or inertia.
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lethargic indifference; apathy.
- Synonyms:
- lethargy, listlessness, stolidity
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a state of suspended physical powers and activities.
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dormancy, as of a hibernating animal.
- Synonyms:
- drowsiness, slumber, sleepiness
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of torpor
1600–10; < Latin: numbness, equivalent to torp ( ēre ) to be stiff or numb + -or -or 1
Explanation
Torpor is a state of mental and physical inactivity. "After a huge Thanksgiving meal, my family members fall into a torpor; no one can even pick up the TV remote." Torpor can be used in everyday speech, but it's also a scientific term for a state of deep sleep that allows animals to conserve energy. Certain species of bats, birds, and frogs rely on torpor for survival during tough times. While humans don't technically belong to this group of animals, they certainly appear to, especially after a large meal and on most Monday mornings.
Vocabulary lists containing torpor
Grade 12, List 2
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"Joyas Voladoras" by Brian Doyle
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Unbroken
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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.
See Examples For:
Alas, even the raised stakes cannot shake them from the emotional and intellectual torpor that bedevils Chekhov’s celebrated characters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
A sluggish U.S. labor market appears to be coming out of its torpor.
From MarketWatch ● May 7, 2026
The Pacers never looked like shaking off their early season torpor on Monday despite facing a Detroit team missing both Cade Cunningham and Tobias Harris.
From Barron's ● Nov. 18, 2025
While their immune systems keep the fungus at bay when the bat is active, the fungus gains the upper hand once the bats enter their state of torpor.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2024
For all its array of officials, Siuwensin was a very small, plain place, sunk deep in rural torpor.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
During one of these afternoon torpors, I came upon a word: acedia.
From The Guardian ● May 29, 2019
He was in one of his reptilian torpors again.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
Such torpors are accompanied by an obscure labour of the brain, which is inexpressibly wearying.
From Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
In international relations diplomacy has been a boyishly lawless affair of family intrigues, commercial and territorial brigandage, torpors of pseudo-goodnature produced by laziness and spasms of ferocious activity produced by terror.
From Heartbreak House by Bernard Shaw
But the fumes and torpors of grief and pain were this morning dispersed.
From Tante by Anne Douglas Sedgwick
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.
