How to Use impassive in a Sentence

impassive

adjective
  • Her face remained impassive throughout the trial.
  • Biden cupped his chin with one hand, his gaze impassive and lowered.
    Alexis Simendinger, The Hill, 21 Jan. 2025
  • Their faces were impassive, but their eyes had lids and lashes that blinked.
    Jhumpa Lahiri, New Yorker, 30 June 2025
  • Taveras places his left hand near his heart, but remains impassive.
    Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald, 2 Jan. 2025
  • And his face, though long and carved, is anything but impassive.
    Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 15 Nov. 2019
  • The impassive march of content and the shuffling tread of death.
    Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2025
  • His voice was deep if slightly harried, and his face impassive.
    The Economist, 11 Oct. 2019
  • The tone and point of view were lofty, sharp-eyed, seemingly impassive.
    Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
  • But that fish- eye lens just stared back at her, impassive, unblinking.
    Andrew Liptak, The Verge, 11 June 2019
  • Her face remained impassive even as tears formed and began to travel down her cheek.
    Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 24 May 2026
  • Shaq by then was anchored to the bench with five fouls, his face utterly impassive.
    Scott Raab, Esquire, 14 May 2010
  • Modern buildings go up in the impassive lunar desert.
    Susan Sontag, Vogue, 26 Oct. 2025
  • Riles’s face is impassive, focused, as the announcer reads out the winner.
    Sam Stone, Bon Appetit Magazine, 1 July 2026
  • He is made out to be a tennis ace (his practice swings are mechanical, his face impassive).
    John Anderson, WSJ, 5 Aug. 2021
  • But Wolkoff sheds more light on the extent and depth of the enmity behind those impassive faces.
    Maria Puente, USA TODAY, 30 Aug. 2020
  • Through all of the chaos, Melania’s impassive stillness has led folks on both sides of the aisle to see her as a beacon of hope.
    Washington Post, 5 Dec. 2019
  • Farewell to the impassive, agile grapplers, and to the whiplash pleasure of a badminton rally.
    Maya Singer, Vogue, 8 Jan. 2025
  • For two hours, von Neumann listened to the scientists, his head in his hands, his face impassive.
    Samanth Subramanian, The New Republic, 8 Mar. 2022
  • What had been built to seem so solid was fragile in the face of time because time is impassive, more animal than human.
    Lauren Groff, The New Yorker, 23 May 2016
  • Vuillard’s mother looks impassive and menacing next to her daughter, who is in a wedding dress.
    J.s. Marcus, WSJ, 17 Dec. 2021
  • The faces in the crowd appear impassive despite the fact that God’s living mouthpiece will soon address them.
    Cassady Rosenblum, Rolling Stone, 28 June 2022
  • Najib was impassive when the verdict was read out and his wife and two children immediately went to his side in the court.
    Philip J. Heijmans, Fortune, 23 Aug. 2022
  • And his guests, who are often known for their steely, impassive façades, will break into an appreciative, almost goofy laugh.
    Hua Hsu, The New Yorker, 12 Sep. 2022
  • In the resultant selfie, my delighted face and his impassive one seem to rise above a massive hand in the foreground.
    Joshua David Stein, GQ, 24 Jan. 2018
  • Her voice, as impassive as her face, conveys the numb disbelief of the brokenhearted.
    Martin Kuz, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Aug. 2022
  • Thunberg, though hardly impassive, has made a point of focusing on the science and being prepared with the facts.
    Washington Post, 25 Sep. 2019
  • Thunberg, though hardly impassive, has made a point of focusing on the science and being prepared with the facts.
    Ted Anthony, Fortune, 24 Sep. 2019
  • The defendant, wearing a maroon sweater with dark brown elbow patches, was impassive as the verdict was read.
    Colin Moynihan, New York Times, 19 June 2019
  • The coverage is being anchored from a raft on the Seine by two impassive, middle-aged Brits.
    Bloomberg.com, 4 May 2017
  • The whole empire of signs is reduced to a greater-than symbol, the mouth of an impassive alligator eating someone’s lunch.
    Troy Patterson, The New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'impassive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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