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.
When decedent Martin remained unresponsive, an officer requested medical assistance.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 26, 2026
"My daughter Amelia has a condition meaning she can't regulate her body temperature – she was going unresponsive in the classroom last summer," says Bedfordshire mum Victoria Everitt.
From BBC • Jun. 22, 2026
The teen, who was initially unresponsive, was taken to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in Bodelwyddan by ambulance.
From BBC • Jun. 16, 2026
The purpose of the Bradley coalition, Sonenshein said, was to “break open the stranglehold of a city establishment that was ... unresponsive to the diversity of the community.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 31, 2026
He had to repeat himself, because Jaime did not move, remaining as unresponsive as ever, without the slightest gesture to show that he had heard his brother’s words.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
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.
