desensitized

adjective

Definition of desensitizednext
as in ruthless
having or showing a lack of sympathy or tender feelings having lived through the horrors of war, the soldiers had seemingly become desensitized to virtually all human suffering

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Examples Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for desensitized
  1. ruthless
  2. merciless
  3. insensitive
  4. hard
  5. callous
Adjective
  • Peyser covered the high-profile trial for the Post as a columnist, spending every day in court in order to produce a series of ruthless front-page takes about the Stewart scandal.
    David Mack, Vulture, 7 Nov. 2024
  • The standoff between Blanche’s impractical aestheticism and Stanley’s ruthless pragmatism is the heart of this quintessentially American drama.
    Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2024
Definition of ruthless
Adjective
  • Their idea involved merciless kills, a chainsaw, a group of youths and a homicidal family with a craving for human flesh; all set against the backdrop of a sunny, countryside day giving way to a nightmarish evening.
    Sydney Bishop, CNN, 31 Oct. 2024
  • For most of them, the rigors of fighting on the eastern front only increased the value of fighting a merciless war—Hitler's war.
    Nina Turner, Newsweek, 29 Oct. 2024
Definition of merciless
Adjective
  • Two former employees recount a toxic work environment that included racially insensitive jokes, unequal pay and more.
    Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, 24 Oct. 2024
  • Harrison also questioned whether the photos would be considered racially insensitive in 2018 when they were taken.
    Jason Pham, StyleCaster, 18 Sep. 2024
Definition of insensitive
Adjective
  • Sandoval has received some pay bumps, including a temporary $10,000-a-year bonus for Hawaii special education teachers designed to alleviate shortages in that and other hard-to-staff areas.
    Alia Wong, USA TODAY, 14 Feb. 2023
  • Whether those numbers are an overstatement, or possibly an understatement, is hard to say.
    Lance Eliot, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2023
Definition of hard
Adjective
  • Adult human beings—even the callous, tone-deaf, emotionally immature ones—demonstrate an understanding of death that is remarkable in its sophistication.
    Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2024
  • Prosecutors painted a picture of callous enablement that eventually ended in Perry’s tragic demise.
    Victoria Bekiempis, Vulture, 6 Sep. 2024
Definition of callous
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Thesaurus Entries Near desensitized

deselects

desensitized

desert

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Cite this Entry

“Desensitized.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desensitized. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

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