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If you've ever wanted to grab a baseball bat and go full Office Space on your insensate printer, you'll appreciate how the word insensate has Latin roots that literally mean "not having sense," as in, "If this insensate printer jams one more time, I'm going to do violence to it."
Of course, by "sense" or "senses," we might mean any of three things: "intelligence, common sense, or tact," or "sympathy toward others," or "seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling."
And so, we'll be defining insensate in three ways:
1. Not intelligent: stupid, foolish, having zero sense, or f_t_ous, like a printer that sits there and grins in silence as if you didn't just tell it to print. But you did.
2. Not sympathetic: cold, heartless, merciless, unscrup____s, even mal_f_c___, like a printer that jams until you give up and leave, then prints a pristine copy that you don't need anymore.
3. Not sensing anything in the environment: inanimate, inactive as if dead, not alive or seeming to be not alive, quie___nt, or d_cerebr___. Like a printer that's just a machine and can't harbor a grudge against you. Deep breaths.
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"INSENSATE"
Like the related words "senseless" and "insensitive," our word "insensate" has three meanings: three different ways to be "without senses."
Insensate things and people are either, 1, senseless in a stupid way; 2, senseless in a cruel, heartless way; or 3, senseless in a literal way: dead, or never alive to begin with.
In other words, someone or something insensate is foolish, or heartless, or dead or non-living.
Pronunciation:
in SEN sate
Part of speech:
Adjective: "their insensate haste," "the comment was insensate," "as insensate as a stone."
Other forms:
Insensately (in SEN sate lee), insensateness (in SEN sate ness).
(I would have guessed the noun would be "insensation," but nope: "insensateness.")
The opposite is rare: "sensate."
How to use it:
"Insensate" has a harsh tone. And it's more serious and emphatic than "senseless," "foolish," and "unfeeling."
It's easily understood in context, even with its three separate meanings. Let's check out how to use each.
First, when you use "insensate" to mean "stupid, foolish, having zero sense," talk about insensate people, comments, questions, actions, decisions, habits, behaviors, customs, ignorance, violence, etc.
Second, when you use "insensate" to mean "cold, heartless, having no sympathy," talk about insensate people, personalities, hearts, souls, spirits, comments, questions, crimes, war, hatred, violence, ferocity, brutality, etc.
And third, when you use "insensate" to mean "not sensing anything, inanimate, not alive or seeming to be not alive," talk about insensate objects, things, property, machines, pieces of equipment, people in comas, or people who are drunk, exhausted, overly medicated, etc.
If you refer to the world, the universe, or nature as insensate, you might be calling it "alive but dumb and senseless (our first meaning)," or "alive but unsympathetic (our second meaning)," or "not alive, and therefore incapable of sympathy (our third meaning)." Or some combination thereof. As we'll see, the differences among these meanings tend to blur.
examples:
John Oliver brought to light the insensate business practices of Frank Rolfe, the wealthy developer who raises the rent on mobile homes, keeps the residents too poor to move, and has likened his own policies to running "a Waffle House where everyone is chained to the booths."
"At the field a heavy silence prevailed, overpowering motion like a ruthless, insensate spell holding in thrall the only beings who might break it."
— Joseph Heller, Catch-22, 1955
has this page helped you understand "insensate"?
study it:
Explain all three meanings of "insensate" without saying "dumb," "cold-hearted," or "braindead."
try it out:
Fill in the blank: "Swept into the insensate herd, I (did something popular but stupid)."
Example: "Swept into the insensate herd, I would flat-iron my hair into a thin, shiny sheet."
before you review, play:
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
Quintessential TV Quotes!
Each day, match the given vocabulary word to the quote that best illustrates it.
From the previous issue:
From Firefly, which quote below illustrates a beau monde?
Quote A:
Kaylee: Didja see the chandelier? It's hovering. ... Ooh, pineapples! ... Don't you love this party? Everything's so fancy and there's some kind of hot cheese over there.
Quote B:
River: They weren't cows inside. They were waiting to be, but they forgot. Now they see sky, and they remember what they are.
Mal: Is it bad that what she said made perfect sense to me?
Quote C:
Young River: We got outflanked by the Independent squad, and we're never gonna make it back to our platoon. [pauses] We need to resort to cannibalism.
Young Simon: That was fast. Don't we have rations or anything?
Answer: In quote A, Kaylee relishes a party in the beau monde. (Interestingly, elsewhere in the Firefly series, the characters reference a planet called Beaumonde, but it's not the planet on which this fancy shindig takes place; that one is called Persephone, in a reference that aligns more subtly with the episode's plot and themes. Ooh, now I want to rewatch.)
Try this one today:
From A Series of Unfortunate Events, which quote below illustrates something workaday?
Quote A:
Vanessa: Welcome to Lachrymose News, where things that are happening keep happening until they stop happening.
Quote B:
Lemony: If you like stories in which children enjoy pleasant rides in truck beds on their way to colorful destinations, where they finally solve the curious mysteries plaguing their lives, that story is streaming elsewhere.
Quote C:
Olaf: Do you know what the question I am asked most is?
Hook-Handed Man: "Will you please leave the premises?"
review today's word:
1. The exact opposite of INSENSATE is SENSATE.
But some close opposites of INSENSATE are
A. BRIEF, PITHY, and PERSUASIVE.
B. WISE, FEELING, and CONSCIOUS.
C. SNAPPY, SPRIGHTLY, and BRIGHT.
2. It's hard to think of weeds as insensate when they _____.
A. sprout dainty blossoms in white and purple
B. adhere so predictably to their expected life cycles
C. push so hard through cracks in the concrete, as if with intention
a final word:
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Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
If you've ever wanted to grab a baseball bat and go full Office Space on your insensate printer, you'll appreciate how the word insensate has Latin roots that literally mean "not having sense," as in, "If this insensate printer jams one more time, I'm going to do violence to it."
"INSENSATE" Like the related words "senseless" and "insensitive," our word "insensate" has three meanings: three different ways to be "without senses."
John Oliver brought to light the insensate business practices of Frank Rolfe, the wealthy developer who raises the rent on mobile homes, keeps the residents too poor to move, and has likened his own policies to running "a Waffle House where everyone is chained to the booths."
Explain all three meanings of "insensate" without saying "dumb," "cold-hearted," or "braindead."
Fill in the blank: "Swept into the insensate herd, I (did something popular but stupid)."
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
1. The exact opposite of INSENSATE is SENSATE.
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