as in blank
not expressing any emotion
a catatonic stare was all that the neglected resident of the nursing home seemed capable of
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Recent Examples of catatonic
Do not let despair or doom and gloom put you into a catatonic funk.
—
Lance Eliot, Forbes, 17 Jan. 2025
Things were going fair to middling with his candidacy until Biden’s catastrophic, catatonic debate performance in June, which caused a major Democratic freak-out and resulted in his grudging departure from the ticket and endorsement of Harris.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2024
Netto and Schindler take pains to point out the irony of Iris’ predicament: Iris has emerged from the emotionally catatonic state that she’s been in since the day of her son’s accident… just to wind up in a physically catatonic state at the site of her son’s accident.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 25 Oct. 2024
But Folie à Deux uses Arthur’s catatonic depression to emphasize what his path to stardom really was: a killing spree that landed him in jail and well on his way to being executed by the state.
—Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge, 4 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for catatonic
Lance Eliot, Forbes, 17 Jan. 2025
Things were going fair to middling with his candidacy until Biden’s catastrophic, catatonic debate performance in June, which caused a major Democratic freak-out and resulted in his grudging departure from the ticket and endorsement of Harris.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2024
Netto and Schindler take pains to point out the irony of Iris’ predicament: Iris has emerged from the emotionally catatonic state that she’s been in since the day of her son’s accident… just to wind up in a physically catatonic state at the site of her son’s accident.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 25 Oct. 2024
But Folie à Deux uses Arthur’s catatonic depression to emphasize what his path to stardom really was: a killing spree that landed him in jail and well on his way to being executed by the state.
—Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge, 4 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for catatonic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for catatonic
Adjective
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Pinterest is flooded with soft-launch ideas: two plates on the dinner table, two silhouettes cast against a blank wall, two pairs of shoes sitting next to one another.—
Kameryn Griesser,
CNN Money,
22 July 2025
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What once sat blank and unmoving begins to flow and creak and jerk beneath its own weight.—
Laura Poppick
July 22,
Literary Hub,
22 July 2025
Adjective
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After hosting pop ups at Batch and elsewhere for a couple of years, Lit offered Fulco the vacant trailer space at Batch.—
Matthew Odam,
Austin American Statesman,
25 July 2025
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None of the 408 properties — occupied or vacant — at the center of the litigation have a certificate of compliance, according to the city's lawsuit, which also alleges hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid blight violations.—
Nushrat Rahman,
Freep.com,
25 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Catatonic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/catatonic. Accessed 29 Jul. 2025.
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