insensitive
/ɪnˈsɛnsɪtɪv/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.45 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Expressing or feeling little or no concern, care, compassion, or consideration for the feelings, emotions, sentiments, or concerns of other people; inconsiderate or incompassionate.
adj
Not expressing normal physical feeling.
adj
Not expressing normal emotional feelings; cold; tactless; undiplomatic.
adj
Unreceptive, indifferent; displaying little openness or receptivity.
Example Sentences
- "It is something like the way dame Nature gathers round a foreign body an envelope of some insensitive tissue which can protect from evil that which it would otherwise harm by contact."
- "1895, Grant Allen, The British Barbarians Somehow, when Bertram Ingledew let it once be felt he did not wish to be questioned on any particular point, even women managed to restrain their curiosity: and he would have been either a very bold or a very insensitive man who would have ventured to continue questioning him any further."
- "Oh I really should have known by the time you drove me home, / By the vagueness in your eyes, your casual good-byes, / By the chill in your embrace and the expression on your face, / That told me you might have some advice to give / On how to be insensitive."
- "This early rigidification and satisfaction with his own conclusions made him insensitive to new political and philosophical ideas."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English in- English sensitive English insensitive From in- + sensitive.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɪnˈsɛnsɪtɪv/
Inflected Forms
more insensitive (comparative)
most insensitive (superlative)