unresponsive
Britishadjective
Explanation
If someone can't or won't respond, we call them unresponsive. Depending on the context, a person's unresponsiveness can be just a bummer or a life-threatening condition. Take this word piece by piece. Un- means "not," as usual. A response is a reaction to something. And -ive is a suffix that means "state of being." Taken together, these parts add up to "the state of being not responsive." When your boyfriend just sits and stares rather than talking about what's bothering him, he's being unresponsive. Medically speaking, when a person is called unresponsive, it means they're at least unconscious, and possibly dead or dying.
Vocabulary lists containing unresponsive
100 SAT Words Beginning with "U"
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The Secret Garden
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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.
Four months into her pregnancy, Walker’s teenage son discovered her unresponsive in bed.
From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2026
In an absence seizure, a person has varying degrees of loss of awareness and can result in the person affected losing balance and being unresponsive during the seizure itself.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
When emergency responders in Greenville, S.C., found Panettiere in an apartment on Sunday, she was unresponsive and in cardiac arrest.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2026
She was found unresponsive at an apartment complex in Greenville, S.C., shortly before 2 p.m.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
I call his name again, giving him a little shake, but he’s unresponsive.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
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.
