unresponsive
Britishadjective
Explanation
If someone can't or won't respond, we call them unresponsive. Depending on the context, a person's unresponsiveness can be just a bummer or a life-threatening condition. Take this word piece by piece. Un- means "not," as usual. A response is a reaction to something. And -ive is a suffix that means "state of being." Taken together, these parts add up to "the state of being not responsive." When your boyfriend just sits and stares rather than talking about what's bothering him, he's being unresponsive. Medically speaking, when a person is called unresponsive, it means they're at least unconscious, and possibly dead or dying.
Vocabulary lists containing unresponsive
100 SAT Words Beginning with "U"
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The Secret Garden
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Shepherd was pulled out of the Thames alive, but Brown was found unconscious and unresponsive and died later in hospital.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
When emergency responders in Greenville, S.C., found Panettiere in an apartment on Sunday, she was unresponsive and in cardiac arrest.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2026
The actor was found unresponsive at an apartment complex in Greenville, S.C., shortly before 2 p.m.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
They must suffer from pain that is either unresponsive to treatment or, in the patient's view, unbearable if they have chosen not to receive or to stop receiving treatment.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
Pa tells Theo that Vincent is moody and often unresponsive, spending very little time with them.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
