Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Imperceptible; inappreciable.
  • adjective Very small or gradual.
  • adjective Having lost consciousness, especially temporarily; unconscious.
  • adjective Not invested with sensation; inanimate.
  • adjective Devoid of physical sensation or the power to react, as to pain or cold; numb.
  • adjective Unaware; unmindful.
  • adjective Not emotionally responsive; indifferent.
  • adjective Lacking meaning; unintelligible.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not perceptible by the senses; imperceptible; inappreciable.
  • Not sensible to the mind; not consciously apprehended or appreciated; unconscious.
  • Without the power of feeling or sensation; without corporeal sensibility.
  • Not susceptible of emotion or passion; void of feeling or tenderness: as, to be insensible to the sufferings of others.
  • Void of sense or meaning; meaningless.
  • Dull, torpid, senseless, unconscious, unfeeling, unsusceptible, indifferent, hard, callous.
  • noun One who is lacking in sensibility; a thoroughly apathetic person.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Destitute of the power of feeling or perceiving; wanting bodily sensibility; unconscious.
  • adjective Not susceptible of emotion or passion; void of feeling; apathetic; unconcerned; indifferent; ; -- often used with of or to.
  • adjective Incapable of being perceived by the senses; imperceptible. Hence: Progressing by imperceptible degrees; slow; gradual.
  • adjective obsolete Not sensible or reasonable; meaningless.
  • adjective Incapable of feeling a specific sensation or emotion.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Unable to be perceived by the senses.
  • adjective Incapable or deprived of physical sensation.
  • adjective Unable to be understood; unintelligible.
  • adjective Lacking sense or intelligence.
  • adjective Incapable of mental feeling; indifferent.
  • adjective Incapable of emotional feeling; callous; apathetic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective barely able to be perceived
  • adjective unaware of or indifferent to
  • adjective incapable of physical sensation
  • adjective unresponsive to stimulation

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin īnsēnsibilis, imperceivable : in-, not; see in– + sēnsibilis, perceptible; see sensible.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin insensibilis

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