MEANING
1. A partial or complete lack of normal physical feeling in part of the body.
2. A state of feeling little or no emotion, sometimes following shock, grief or prolonged strain.
Use it for
describing a limb with little sensation; showing a physical reaction to cold or pressure; distinguishing sensory loss from pain; describing touch that barely registersProvides a noun for emotional shutdown after shock and keeps it distinct from a bodily sensory symptom. Writing functions: Psychological states.
Words that belong together
- numbness in the fingers
- temporary numbness
- loss of sensation and numbness
On the page
Numbness spread through her fingers as she waited on the frozen platform.
He rubbed his arm until the numbness gave way to a prickling ache.
The condolences reached her as sound alone; the numbness remained.
Days after the verdict, his anger had settled into a numbness he could not explain.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- numbness
Usage notes
Usually uncountable: numbness. Do not invent a routine plural. Distinguish physical loss of sensation from emotional lack of response. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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