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.
When he zoomed in with his camera, he realized the motionless ants were covered with tiny cone ants.
From Science Daily • Apr. 14, 2026
But here in Southern California, something more is in the air: a dense, motionless tsunami of something foul and inexplicable.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026
It showed remarkable resilience from Choi, after she had earlier taken a brutal fall in which she hit the icy lip of the pipe and flipped into its centre, lying motionless for some time.
From BBC • Feb. 12, 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
For several moments I was motionless, despite the sputtering inside me.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
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.
