Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Lacking flavor or zest; not tasty.
- adj. Lacking qualities that excite, stimulate, or interest; dull.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Without any taste; not exciting the sense of taste; without flavor or savor.
- Without a definite taste; having a taste which from its faintness and undecided character appears negative, insufficient, or slightly disagreeable; flat in taste.
- Hence Without power to excite interest or emotion; without attraction; uninteresting; dull; flat.
- Synonyms Lifeless, stale, tame, prosaic, stupid.
Wiktionary
- adj. Unappetizingly flavorless.
- adj. Flat; lacking character or definition.
- adj. Cloyingly sweet or sentimental.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Wanting in the qualities which affect the organs of taste; without taste or savor; vapid; tasteless.
- adj. Wanting in spirit, life, or animation; uninteresting; weak; vapid; flat; dull; heavy.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. lacking taste or flavor or tang
- adj. lacking interest or significance or impact
Etymologies
- From Latin īnsipidus ("tasteless"), from in- ("not") + sapidus ("savory"). (Wiktionary)
- French insipide, from Late Latin īnsipidus : Latin in-, not; see in-1 + Latin sapidus, savory (from sapere, to taste; see sep- in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Recently we have been ‘Christmas’ but before that ‘festive season’ whilst insipid is the closest we can get to I guess?”
It Is Christmas in Ruralshire. Say It And Be Proud. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG
“You called it "insipid"--dunno, for me, one of its charms was how it managed to sidestep being insipid.”
“The Hijazi is a round fruit, sweet, but insipid, which is also the reproach of the Sawadi, or black grape.”
“The fish has no scales, nor any bones, excepting that of the middle: its flesh is very good and delicate, but in a small degree vary insipid, which is easily remedied; in other respects it eats very like the fresh cod of the country.”
History of Louisisana Or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina: Containing
“I wouldn't call her insipid if I were in your place," he remonstrated.”
“New York City, called insipid (1810), ~1~, 20 defences in War of 1812, 150”
Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals In Two Volumes, Volume II
“At last an old Lady, who had three Daughters marriagable, said, she wondered to hear Mr. _Hickman_ called insipid; for she thought there could be no Reason for giving him that Appellation, unless young”
“Carly Flynn, who managed to be "the nice one" without being insipid, which is a tricky balance to manage (not that I've ever tried).”
“However I'm unaware whether any survey exists asking about John Edwards 'love child and the state of the John and Elizabeth marriage, the NBC late-night programming issues concerning Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien, or nearly anything else that can only kindly be classified as insipid, dumb, moronic, my biased guess is that more Americans would fare better with those matters than they did with the just basic stuff Pew asked.”
OpEdNews - OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion
“The following week he performed what can only be described as insipid, self-parody during the Super Bowl halftime.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘insipid’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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CULI - wine-tasting adjectives
In this area of expertise nouns are frequently used as adjectives (almond, bacon, cider, diesel, fennel, fresh-cut hay, wool) or new adjectives are formed (appley, berrylike, citrusy, full-bodied, ...
acetic, acidic, aged, angular, appley, astringent, attractive, austere, berrylike, big, bitter, brawny and 511 more...
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allover
reintegrate, spight, surveillant, harmonize, Colophon, workplace, bigoted, unsighted, bridgework, salutation, voltmeter, octane and 159 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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scholarly writing words
decrement, replete, impel, iterative, subsume, tacit, vex, denote, impart, ascertain, coalesce, extant and 49 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Infinite Jest
starting from i dont know the 4th or 5th chapter called 'year of the depend adult undergarment'
petulant, agoraphobia, portcullis, fantod, coital, phylactery, imprimatur, insipid, precocious, cardioid, fenestration, inception and 9 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1907 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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GRE
vacillate, prosaic, auspicious, insipid, cerbic, acerbic, pertinacious, rapacious, specious, belied, assiduous, intractable and 8 more...
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My preparation
for GRE ofcourse
exonerate, incipient, disparate, morbid, engross, ebullient, predilection, propensity, allure, qualms, chastise, perpetuate and 111 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL I
iconoclast, idiosyncrasy, ignoble, ignominious, illicit, illusory, illustrious, imbibe, imbue, immaculate, immaterial, immolate and 155 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for insipid.
myth17 IBM's insipid PC design. Aug 13, 2012
jorge999 One evening as I sipped my tea
a fly fell in, unknown to me,
Careless and unknowing I
insipid fly Nov 14, 2009
bilby I'm with you, logos. Aug 8, 2008
super-logos This is a truly marvelous word that captures the essence of our TV and popular magazine-crazed culture. I also think this word is just about the worst thing you can call a person and still be polite (sort of). Aug 8, 2008
thedayhascome /in SIP id/ adj · Lacking intelligence, interest or significance. Aug 7, 2008