Meaning & use
numbness
A lack of physical sensation in part of the body, or an inability to feel emotion.
See it in a sentence
After the dentist's injection, a strange numbness spread across half of her face.
He described a numbness that settled over him in the weeks after his father's death.
A note on using this word
Used both physically, for a lack of feeling in the skin or limbs, and emotionally, for a dulled reaction to grief or shock.
Words with a similar meaning
insensitivity
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
sensitivity
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