motionless
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- motionlessly adverb
- motionlessness noun
Etymology
Origin of motionless
Explanation
If you're motionless, you're completely still, not moving a muscle. Your barber might instruct you to remain motionless while he trims the hair around your ears. Anything that's motionless doesn't move — a statue is motionless, and your bike is motionless lying in the driveway until you climb on it and start pedaling. Photographs are motionless, while video records movement. Your new puppy might be a constantly wiggling, jumping ball of motion until she becomes exhausted and falls sound asleep, motionless. Motion, or movement, comes from a Latin root, motionem, "a movement" or "an emotion."
Vocabulary lists containing motionless
Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 4
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"The Woman in the Snow" and "Rosa Parks"
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English Language Development Texts, Unit 2
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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.
She added that staff "had their backs to her while she just laid there for over a minute, completely motionless".
From BBC • Mar. 20, 2026
Pointing at a calf lying motionless in a green field in South Africa's Eastern Cape province, farmer Igsahn Felix let out a heavy sigh.
From Barron's • Mar. 13, 2026
In December, motionless Waymo vehicles clogged San Francisco streets after a power outage.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 2, 2026
For the giant is motionless, and its chest is pierced with an ominous spear that rises 3,000 feet into the sky.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026
We lay motionless for a long, long time.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
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.
