INSENSIBLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does insensible mean? 

• INSENSIBLE (adjective)
  The adjective INSENSIBLE has 4 senses:

1. incapable of physical sensation

2. unaware of or indifferent to

3. barely able to be perceived

4. unresponsive to stimulation

  Familiarity information: INSENSIBLE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INSENSIBLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Incapable of physical sensation

Context example:

insensible earth

Similar:

anaesthetic; anesthetic (characterized by insensibility)

asleep; benumbed; numb (lacking sensation)

Also:

incognizant; unaware ((often followed by 'of') not aware)

unconscious (not conscious; lacking awareness and the capacity for sensory perception as if asleep or dead)

insensitive (not responsive to physical stimuli)

insensitive (deficient in human sensibility; not mentally or morally sensitive)

Antonym:

sensible (able to feel or perceive)

Derivation:

insensibility (a lack of sensibility)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Unaware of or indifferent to

Synonyms:

insensible; unaffected

Context example:

insensible to the suffering around him

Similar:

insensitive (deficient in human sensibility; not mentally or morally sensitive)

Derivation:

insensibility (devoid of passion or feeling; hardheartedness)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Barely able to be perceived

Synonyms:

indiscernible; insensible; undetectable

Context example:

an almost insensible change

Similar:

imperceptible; unperceivable (impossible or difficult to perceive by the mind or senses)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Unresponsive to stimulation

Synonyms:

insensible; out of it; senseless

Context example:

drugged and senseless

Similar:

unconscious (not conscious; lacking awareness and the capacity for sensory perception as if asleep or dead)

Derivation:

insensibility (a lack of sensibility)

 Context examples 

I was aware her lurid visage flamed over mine, and I lost consciousness: for the second time in my life—only the second time—I became insensible from terror.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I was insensible when washed ashore, but the miserable remnant of my superb specimen was still intact; I now lay it before you.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They ascended and passed him; and as they passed, Anne's face caught his eye, and he looked at her with a degree of earnest admiration, which she could not be insensible of.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

She dreaded lest she should learn to be insensible of it.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

What I had to do, was, to show my aunt that her past goodness to me had not been thrown away on an insensible, ungrateful object.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In their very great misery they had become insensible to the bite of the lash or the bruise of the club.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

It was a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage, but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Not quite so miserable as to be insensible to mirth.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I was too much shocked to be able to pass myself off as insensible even to the undiscerning Sir John.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Is there a Henry in the world who could be insensible to such a declaration?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)